Deceptus
by MistressMind007
Summary: What if Jack, Miko, Raf and Agent Fowler didn't manage to get off the Nemesis after they had reversed the effect of the dark energon in the ship?
1. Chapter 1

Eyes were wide with fear as the terrifying sight was absorbed into their minds. Mouths dry as they were plagued by their thoughts of the possible outcomes. Air seemed to seep away from the humans that needed it making their breaths hitch as the dark reality was bestowed upon them. Their ears now squealed as an unbearable silence surrounded them. Their bodies had gone numb as if their central nervous systems had completely shut down. Everything that surrounded them had suddenly slowed down to a pace that didn't match the reality that they were supposedly in and eventually dizziness crept up on them.

A teenage boy, about 16, ripped his eyes away from the root of his troubles. He swiftly turned to look at his friends, his stormy, blue eyes radiating fear and giving away his next words. However his expression changed when he observed the readable facial emotions of absolute horror on his younger friends' faces. His face twisted from one of fear to one of drive and determination. He would get his friends out alive and he didn't intend on allowing himself to fail.

"Run." Jack said smoothly yet with a hint of authority as he began running towards his friends who still seemed to be frozen in place.

The only girl, one that looked about 15, didn't need telling twice. In fact she didn't need to be told once as she had already started trying to yank her younger friend out of his comatose-like state. The boy, about 12-ish it was hard to tell due to his height, wasn't budging. His gaze remained fixated on what would most likely be the cause of his death. It wasn't until he heard the creaking of giant, metallic joints that he snapped out of it. He stared, eyes filled with shock, into his female friend's eyes before she tugged his arms to get him to start running.

Now all three of them were running together and out of the power room of the Nemesis. They didn't dare turn to look back in case the sight of a certain colossal warlord chasing after them met them. They continued to run as fast as they could through the dim, endless maze of corridors that held a chilling atmosphere. Their aim was to reach the room they had originally started in and also where they had left Agent Fowler. The 16 year old, Jack his name was, was the one that realised that there was a very high chance that a large group of vehicon blasters would be pointed at them as they hummed signalling that they were ready for shooting the three targets.

The stasis that had been forced onto all Cybertronians in range of the Nemesis had practically been slapped out of them and soon enough they would all be out of their statue-like state. That includes every Decepticon on the vessel. These thoughts gradually built in Jack's mind as he continued running alongside his friends until he finally dug out a logical plan.

"Miko! Your phone!" He called to her but didn't look at her as he kept his focus on dodging, diving and jumping over sprawled out vehicon bodies.

"I don't think now is the time to take pictures!" She shouted back breathlessly, almost angry with his idea. Sure, when she took pictures it was dangerous but when Jack decides to take pictures in any situation it's all safe. Screw him, he always thought he was the best. Miko shook her head to rid of those thoughts as she diverted her attention back to the overhead conduits that would lead them back to where they had started.

"No! Call Ratchet and tell him to have a ground bridge ready!" Jack would've face palmed if he had not been running away from an army of tyrannical, alien, robots that just happened to hate humans.

Miko's thoughts calmed but she didn't reply to Jack as she figured it would be better to dedicate her energy towards sprinting. She stuck her hands in the pockets of her shorts feeling around for her phone. Usually she would have just whipped her phone out but her frenzied running made it much more difficult, instead she found herself fumbling around in other corners of her pocket that weren't even close to her phone. At one point she thought she had lost her phone but it was when the children reached the room that they stopped running and Miko could finally yank out her phone and flip up the front revealing the keypad. Jack and Raf helped Agent Fowler steady himself and kept a hold on him as Miko unlocked her phone. Just as she was about to press the key that had been assigned as a speed dial for the Autobot base she felt her spine tingle as she heard movements coming from behind her and her friends.

All humans with the exception of Agent Fowler swivelled their bodies around to face the intrusion. Agent Fowler simply fell to the floor after Jack and Raf released their grip on him and he began mumbling incoherent things to himself as he hugged the ground beneath him.

"Well, well. Here for a check up are we?" Knock Out grinned as he transformed his hand into his famous saw and pointed it at the children, slowly getting closer and taking great delight in the way they flinched and slightly moved away.

Miko's eyes were wide and her mouth agape however she mentally slapped the fear out of herself and pressed down the button on her phone to contact the Autobots. She kept her phone tight in her hand as she slowly raised it towards Knock Out but only slightly so he couldn't see. Hopefully Ratchet would understand what she was hinting at and that he would immediately send a ground bridge with the team storming through and ready to totally own the crimson medic in front of her.

"Miko, Bulkhead and the others are out of stasis. Where on the warship are you located? I'm bridging you back" the medic told her sternly although anyone could detect the relief in his voice too. The old mech would probably never admit it but everyone knew he cared for the humans despite his act of not really giving a toss.

The medic's tone was now beginning to fill with worry rather than relief as he heard Knock Out in the background and no reply from Miko.

"Miko? Miko, please respond" he tried again when he still heard no reply. Ratchet kept his audio sensors turned up as he awaited a reply. And there it was.

"I see you have been getting well acquainted with my medic" a sinister voice sneered from behind the children.

The children once again swivelled to face yet another intrusion when they heard the raspy voice. All three gasped and felt their heartbeats speed up as they turned and faced the monstrosity of the Decepticon leader himself, even Agent Fowler had stopped his ramblings and gazed up in shock at the number one enemy.

Megatron's booming footsteps drew closer and closer to the four terrified humans.

"And where do you think you are going, my little guests? Why not stay and join the fun we have planned? I can assure you it will be entertaining" he sneered at them again but wore an evil grin which served as a way to further frighten the humans.

"F-fun?" Raf squeaked quietly as he gulped causing Megatron to turn his attention on him.

"All sorts of fun" he continued to grin wickedly as he suddenly snatched up the three human children but left the Government Agent in his position on the floor to stare up at the saw still threatening to kill him.

Abruptly, the green vortex of a ground bridge swirled into existence and unfolded itself allowing the Earthbound Autobots to run through. Of course this instantly attracted the battle hungry optics of Megatron and the face of Knock Out that was currently twisted into a look of shock and worry but when he saw his leader at the ready his expression warped itself into an almost amused look.

"Prime" Megatron greeted his Nemesis in his raspy voice.

"Megatron, it would be mutually beneficial if you were to let the humans go and keep this war between Cybertronian beings only" Optimus replied in his deep, firm, rumble of a voice.

"Mutually beneficial?" Megatron let out a thunderous laugh that made the humans in his grasp cringe in fright, "And how exactly would it be 'mutually beneficial' as you say it is, Optimus?" He smirked horribly at the red and blue mech, his red optics flashing brightly.

"You will be spared" Optimus said in a flat yet dangerous tone as he summoned his blasters and began taking steps towards the warlord.

"If I am comprehending correctly then this must be the part that becomes mutually beneficial" the tyrant grinned as Optimus' optics showed clear confusion, "Move any closer and I will drop your beloved pets"

Megatron's evil look never faltered as he sucked up the expressions of each Autobot which had dropped from stormy and determined to pure horror and shock.

"I'm giving you 5 seconds to turn around and go back to your base or I will drop the human sparklings" he snarled in warning, "And then allow Knock Out to drill the older human into chunks of meat"

"Megatron-" Optimus was interrupted by something his audio receptors did not wish to be introduced to.

"5...4..." The warlord smirked at the blue opticed Cybertronians as he held up his free hand using his digits to show his enemies the amount of time they had left as he counted down.

A count down of their friends' lives.

Optimus wouldn't allow stubbornness to block the fact that Megatron's pure distaste for humans trumped his determination to get his friends back. He knew Megatron and his ruthless nature wouldn't have a problem with dropping the children to their death and watching as Agent Fowler was torn apart by a saw.

"Autobots, return to base" Optimus ordered after a quick run through of the situation, the anger in his voice crystal clear.

"Optimus we can't just leave them!" Arcee shouted at her leader.

"Who knows what they'll do to them?!" Bulkhead added on as he vented his frustration on Optimus.

Bumblebee beeped and warbled at his leader angrily but let out saddened chirps when he looked at Optimus' faceplates and saw he wasn't going to change his mind.

"3.."

"Into the ground bridge now" Ratchet hurried the three complaining guardians of their allies through the ground bridge after scowling at Optimus miserably.

"2..."

After the Autobots has gone through Optimus turned and spared one last sympathetic look towards their human friends and allies, silently promising that he would return for them.

"1..."

Jack, Miko, Raf and Agent Fowler watched as Optimus ran through the ground bridge. Megatron observed with a wicked look engraved onto his face plates as the ground bridge closed into itself and vanished. He then looked down at the three humans in his hand with a dark chuckle and then called to his medic.

"Knock Out, prepare the older human for interrogation. I'm sure you and Dreadwing will enjoy yourselves getting information out of him" he smirked as he saw Agent Fowler visibly flinch and divert his gaze to the ground as he silently prayed.

"Of course, my liege. And what of the human children?"

The tyrant chuckled darkly, his sharp teeth bared menacingly before he replied.

"Take a look at them, Knock Out. They are young" he stared maliciously down at them, "With the right equipment and training..."

Jack, Miko and Raf looked up at the silver warlord as they waited for him to continue.

The warlord honestly couldn't wait to see the crushed, defeated looks on the face plates of the Autobots as they died at the hands of their once friends.

"They will become great editions to the Decepticon army"


	2. Chapter 2

The corridors of the Nemesis, dark as always but now once again contained the movement of vehicon troopers. Patrolling, gathering mining equipment, running errands for superior officers, heading to flight practice, preparing for missions. All aspects of a vehicon's life were made up of these simple things. Living to serve means serving for the rest of your life. At least that's how they've been programmed and trained. They are inferior to most of the Cybertronian race, inferior as they watched their leader stroll through the corridors with his booming footsteps as one of the three tiny beings he currently held abused his hand.

"We. Will. Never. Join. You!" Miko shouted between each punch she delivered to Megatron's hand.

She was beginning to get tired from the long amount of time she'd been venting her frustration on her captor's hand. Tiny beads of sweat were beginning to form on her forehead and her muscles were beginning to fatigue from the constant use of energy. The Decepticon leader could sense here increased heart rate and couldn't help but chuckle as he halted in the corridors.

"Face it, human. You cannot hurt me and you never will be able to. However..." He took her away from Jack and Raf and held her up in his other hand and brought her up to his face to look her in the eye, "I can easily hurt you" he growled as he dropped her.

The girl screamed as her body cut through the air, plummeting towards the bitter, ashen floor that would surely cause her body to become mangled when she impacted it.

"Miko!" Jack cried as Raf buried his face against Jack's t-shirt when he felt tears rolling down his face.

Raf felt Jack's breath hitch a moment later and he slowly lifter his head from where it had been pressed against the older boy's arm. He sighed in relief when he saw Miko lying in Megatron's free hand looking dazed and moaning in what was most likely a warning that she was close to chucking up the contents of her stomach.

Megatron chuckled darkly at Miko a she sprawled out on his hand ad desperately tried to keep her skin from going pale. There was absolutely no way she wanted to show fear in any way but unfortunately for her she was failing miserably. The silver warlord spitefully decided it would be funny to shake the girl slightly as he knew it would worsen her current condition. Miko definitely looked like she was going to faint now and one of her friends had finally built up the courage to shout at the tyrant.

"Leave her alone!" Raf shouted in his young, high pitched voice. His face showed an almost soft anger but those around his could practically feel his bones shaking to the point they sounded like they would shatter. The young boy wanted to be tough but a massive part of him told him it was safer to stay silent.

Megatron's optics widened as did Jack and Miko's eyes. Miko smiled slightly at her friend which played the silent role of 'thank you'. Jack was completely blown away, who knew that a person that was as timid as that could be so courageous. Never had he thought that little, innocent Raf would shout in protest at a tyrannical terror such as a destructive and villainous alien robot.

The belligerent mech raised an optic ridge at Raf resulting in him gulping and looking down and away from the burning gaze. The children were shocked when Megatron snorted in amusement and then continued to walk casually down the endless corridors of the Decepticon warship and to who knows where.

"It would seem you all possess fierce tempers" he mocked them, "Shocking in my opinion" he scoffed.

It was silent but Megatron knew that one of them would eventually say something. He had directed that blunt statement at them intentionally as he had already gathered that they were curious little things. He'd had numerous reports from his officers that included the children being sighted in the battle field. Apparently the Autobots couldn't control their pets and they ended up running through the ground bridge and straight into the fighting.

"Shocking in what way?" Jack asked warily. He wasn't keen on the idea of angering Megatron with questions that his mind was practically overflowing with.

Megatron flicked his optics from the sight of the corridors in front of him and down to the one that had asked the question. Instead of one looking at him expectantly he found all three gazing up at him with questioning looks. Well, Miko was glaring as she was no doubt annoyed with him for what he just did to her, Raf looked slightly scared and Jack showed that he was clearly puzzled. He smirked and rolled his optics at them as he lifted his optics back up to the corridors.

"I thought Autobot pets would have been trained to have kept their tempers locked away" he bared his fangs in a dark, amused grin as the taunting words rolled off his tongue.

The children decided it would be best to keep their mouths shut just by looking at each other. Megatron could practically feel his ego being stroked when he heard no answer but instead heard a shaky subject changer.

"W-where are we going?" Raf asked with what sounded like a whimper embedded into his voice.

To Raf's surprise he got an answer.

"To the training room. I'd like to observe your combat skills and see where your strongest areas are" there was a chilling tone behind his voice that made the children feel uncomfortable.

"Why?" Miko asked, "I thought we were weak, pathetic humans" she glared at him rebelliously.

He glared back down at her thinking she would immediately stand down but she didn't cease her disobedience so he spoke.

"I advise you to watch your tone or I can promise you that we will be getting to know each other very well" he growled but then continued, "But to answer your question no mater how incompetent, as I said before you will make great editions to my army. Your youth will be very valuable to the cause"

The warlord wore a sly look as he saw the gobsmacked expressions of the human children.

"You were serious?" Miko tried to exclaim but her shock had taken control of her voice and it came out as a squeak.

"Now when have I ever lied?" He smiled coyly.

"How would we know?" Jack asked sarcastically as he glared up at him despite how shaken he was.

Megatron growled at the boy's audacity.

"Watch your tone, human"

Nobody had noticed that Raf was turning red from anger, frustration, pressure and fear. Although everyone noticed about a minute later when he finally burst out.

"We will never desert the Autobots for you!" Raf was in tears as he defended their dignity and showed how much he cared for their mountainous friends.

"We shall see" Megatron sneered.

...

The Autobot Base

...

Everyone has different ways of dealing with pain just like how everyone has different hand prints. You can't change it. You can never change someone's initial reaction to something so life changing. Some lock themselves away, some stay strong, some preoccupy themselves with work, some go out for some fresh air and some sleep it off.

Optimus, Ratchet and Arcee were in the main room getting on with their different tasks and finding their own way of calming themselves.

Optimus had been typing away at his computer station trying to find something that would bring their human friends back all the while keeping up his stern yet calm persona. His way of coping. He had been getting along in silence as Ratchet attempted to track down the Nemesis again and Arcee calmed June. His moment of silence was shattered when Ratchet spoke to him. Honestly, it was weird that there even was silence during this time of the week. It was only quieter at base when the children were at school or had returned to their homes at night. The times when the kids did stay over on the weekends were louder nights as they guardians seemed to let go a bit and enjoy themselves with their charges. It warmed Optimus' spark to see his troops- no, family- having fun with their young family. They weren't Cybertronian but in the optics of Optimus and the other Autobots they were family. The little sparklings of the family that brought joy. It was strange to not hear the children creating anything but silence.

"Optimus, I know what you're thinking and believe me, it's not true" Ratchet told his sternly.

The red and blue Prime didn't reply but allowed his medic's words to sink in as he continued typing. Ratchet decided it was best to leave Optimus so he turned his attention back to his task with a sigh. He knew that Optimus was hurting. And honestly, he was too.

"Thank you, old friend" Optimus said quietly as he closed down the computer he was using and left the main room to head back to his quarters.

Ratchet said nothing but simply looked over his shoulder and gave a slow, simple nod in return. As soon as Optimus had left the room Ratchet turned to look at Arcee and their last remaining human friend. He couldn't help but feel sorry for the femme a she tried to calm June, she had been through many situations like these and she didn't deserve it. With a sigh he shook his head about how the power of Unicron could really overpower Primus at times.

Silence screamed through the base. Optimus was in his quarters, Bumblebee was recharging and Bulkhead was out on patrol. And there were no lively children to lighten up the base with their happiness.

Occasionally the sound of a hiccup and a sob could be heard.

Arcee had been through it before. Twice in fact. Three if she wanted to count one back in the past but he wasn't offline. He was just offline to her. Now she gazed down with dim, blue optics at a tiny being that was portraying how she felt all those years ago back on Cybertron. How it hurt her spark to see someone go through the grief of losing someone they love even if the person was still alive. The blue motorcycle would never wish that sort of pain on anyone apart from the ones that caused the pain. The Decepticons. The mindless killers that caused nothing short of chaos and spark wrenching pain.

With heavy thoughts weighing her down, Arcee left the main room after promising June that she would do anything to get Jack and the other two back. A forlorn feeling was cluttering her spark as she lay on her berth with her audios echoing an replaying the sound of a heartbroken June Darby as she grieved for the three of them, her son and two others that she now considered as her own. Arcee frowned slightly as the sick joke hit her. Three just happened to be her number when it came to grieving.

...

The Nemesis

...

"Please, I'll fight. But not Raf" Jack begged Megatron breathlessly as he saw Rad struggling to hold his tears back.

Megatron's optic ridges fell into a confused yet slightly angered angle. This child dared to speak out against him?!

Miko brought him out of his thoughts when she chipped in.

"If just Jack fighting isn't enough then I'll fight too. But please, leave Raf out of this" she pleaded but she almost had a threatening tone to her voice which Megatron growled at.

"I've already told you to watch your tone, child" he glared sternly at her "Why should I allow your pathetic friend to be left out of the training? Three fighters are better than two" he sneered.

There was nothing but silence.

"It appears you children aren't as smart mounted as you were before" he smirked.

More silence.

"Yes, apparently so" he still wore a smirk as he replied to himself.

Jack could only look down in shame as he struggled to think of a persuasive reason. He glanced over at Raf and was disheartened when he saw that tears were finally falling down his cheeks after spilling from his glazed eyes that almost depicted broken glass. Both boys snapped up when the heard Miko's voice

"Because really and truly Raf is a geek, or a nerd... I don't really know the difference but you get my drift. Anyway, my point is Raf isn't good at fighting and no matter what he never will be. But, he will alway be good at tech. He's not a fighter but he's a tech nerd, geek thing and if you want him to benefit you in any way then you will understand what I'm saying"

They were shocked to say the least. Shocked that Miko would be able to conjure up a meaningful excuse such as that. Jack and Raf both smiled warmly at her.

"I suppose I could do something…" Megatron kept up his cruel facade however the girl's reasoning had made him turn his mind in the other direction. He ten opened his comm link, "Soundwave, meet me in the East Wing training room. I will be there shortly"

Raf looked up at his friends with tears still pouring out of his brown eyes and mouthed an innocent thank you. Jack and Miko smile back, reassuring their friend.

Soon enough, Megatron with the children in his hands had reached the training room where Soundwave was waiting patiently for them. Megatron walked over to Soundwave with his booming foot steps. He suddenly held Raf out to the communications officer an the young boy couldn't help but shake.

"Take the boy to the control room with you and find him something useful to do. But make it challenging, apparently he is an excellent candidate in the technological section and not in the fighting section. If he can't learn to fight then he must already be good at what he does" Megatron said darkly before staring at Raf that was now in Soundwave's spindly hands with a threatening look and tone, "And if you fail then you will fight"

With that Megatron dismissed Soundwave with a short nod. The spy turned and walked out of the training room and towards the control room. He glanced down through his visor at the shaking, young human he now held in his hands and felt slightly sympathetic. He knew what it was like to be scared and after getting a read on the boy he could understand why he wouldn't want to fight. In fact, he was slightly horrified by his new discovery. Slowly and carefully he shifted the bit so he was cradled against his spark. Raf looked slightly confused but didn't complain as he soaked up the warmth that radiated from the Decepticon intelligence officer's spark.

In the training room Megatron growled an bared his sharp teeth as the human children made completely no effort to fight against the holograms that he had set up for them. They had said they would fight to spare their friend the trouble of fighting and if they weren't going to stick to their side of the deal then he most certainly wouldn't.

"I'm assuming you don't want me to tell Soundwave to bring back your younger friend back here to join you." he smiled maliciously at them.

Jack and Miko's eyes widened as they quickly shook their heads in reply.

"That's what I thought" he said calmly as he walked over to the simulation projector an reset it, "Now let's try this again, shall we?"

The ex-gladiator now watched as both children instantly flew into action. Jack punched a hologram causing it to smash into millions of tiny shards before they faded out of existence. He swiftly turned his body 180 degrees and kicked another hologram through the chest.

Miko on the other hand looked like she was now actually enjoying herself as she copied MMA moves. Well, trying at least. Although she was a lot more frenzied than Jack she seemed to be doing a much better job than him. What a surprise. Megatron had met many femmes but he hadn't met one that was able to fight better than a mech since his own mate.

The warlord's thoughts suddenly morphed into curiosity. Megatron truly was curious about why the two older children didn't want their younger friend anywhere near fighting. He snorted when he thought about how the young boy was already involved in fighting and didn't seem to realise. What was it that he was missing? Was he missing something? If he was then what was it?

Megatron was now smiling in amusement as he watched how excited Miko was when practising new moves. Oh yes she would be a brilliant new weapon. But now it denned his new weapon needed a rest as did her sidekick as tier movements began to get sloppier by the minute.

"Enough" he said calmly yet firmly as he turned off the machine.

Megatron couldn't stop the small chuckle that left his lips as he gazed down at the two exhausted children that had practically fallen onto his feet and were now leaning on them while trying to catch their breath.

"You have performed well. Even if you did need a bit of... Inspiration" he exaggerated on the last bit but his tone calmed, "You may rest"

The duo looked up at Megatron with a grateful looked as he picked them up in his massive hands and began walking in the direction of his private quarters. The silver giant was surprised when he felt them lean against him instead of struggling like before. Maybe he had worked them too hard. Oh well, he enjoyed the peace and quiet when he could have it.

Suddenly his spark began pulsing in a strange pattern as he unconsciously shifted the children into a position so that they were cradled against his chest as try slept. His optic ridges raise as he could clearly sense that the children's sparks... Hearts were beating in sync with his spark. It was strange and the feeling felt alien, yet familiar as it caressed his soul. Wait... How did these fleshlings get that close to his spark? He quickly yanked them away from his chest resulting in them moaning with annoyance and waking up.

The warlord once again held them in the firm grip of his hand which was more that uncomfortable for the children however they were too exhausted to stay awake and now had their heads leaning against their captor's hand.

The Decepticon leader neared his quarters but the fact still remained. He was slightly puzzled by these humans. All three of them. Maybe this Agent Fowler could open up some old wounds and reveal some background information with the held of Soundwave.

With that, Megatron entered his dimly lit quarters, a factor that matched the rest of the ship, and laid them down on his berth at the other end of the room.

The room was large as it should be for a captain's cabin. The berth was the door across the room an had two side tables made of some of Cybertron's finest metal. Both tables had Cybertronian lamps that had stands that twisted and turned violently but somehow looked beautifully peaceful. Beneath the light of the lamps there were data pads littering the area. In the corner of the room there was a desk with a computer in front of it that share the same design as the ones in the control room just slightly smaller, a control pad and more data pads. On the other side of the room there was a metallic couch along with two arm chairs and a table that had storage drawers were Megatron stored his high grade. Upstaging the table was a telecom device that looked about the size of a truck. Beside the small living room area there was a door that lead through to Megatron's personal cleaning unit. The room was composed of surrounding power showers and a monstrously size tub that sunk into the floor. There were a few shelves on one of the walls that held different scented oils and other luxury washing stuff. Being leader certainly had it's perks.

Megatron walked out of his quarters after sparing one last glance at the slumbering teens. He stepped outside and allowed the doors of his quarters to slide shut and lock. The ex-gladiator now headed in the direction of the control room to continue his command and check on the youngest human.

...

The Nemesis, interrogation chamber

...

Agent Fowler dangled by his arms from cold, rigid chains. They were starting to pinch into his skin but the government groaned when the pinches began to feel more like bites. These heavy chains were becoming painful after about an hour of just hanging there. That red 'Con had just left him there without any word.

Fowler wriggled his arms around in vain as he tried to find a more comfortable position that would cause less damage to his arms. He quickly ceased his movements when he heard the sound of the giant doors sliding open to reveal a giant, winged Decepticon. What was it about him and being tortured by the ones with wings?

The blue and golden seeker walked forward in a relaxed pace and watched as the human became more panicked the closer he got.

"Human, I can guarantee you no harm if you are able to give me the location of the Autobot base" he said neutrally.

"Guarantee me no harm? And why would I believe something like that when it's coming from the mouth of a Decepticon?"

The seeker's face remained unreadable as he brought up his right arm to show an energon taser.

"Unlike others that you may have been introduced to, I am a mech of my word"

Fowler bit his lip as the taser was brought closer to him.

"No. I can't..."

"What do you mean you can't?" The seeker almost snarled.

"I don't know where it is"

"You are lying" he watched as the human agent refused to look him in the face, "From information obtained about you, you have been in this situation before. I'm assuming that you already know that an energon taser will not caress your central nervous system"

Agent Fowler raised his head and shook his head.

"I don't care anymore, you're not getting anything out of me"

He gritted his teeth as his body screamed with pain upon the impact of the energon taser on his stomach. The shocks came in bursts of around 20 seconds but to Fowler it seemed like an hour. The bursts that kept on coming felt like they were never ending, like they would never stop and that he would remain like this forever.

After a while Fowler seemed to have gotten slightly used to the pain, which was not the greatest sign, and opened his eyes slightly.

He saw that the red 'Con had now returned and was talking to the 'Con that still held the energon taser to his body.

The government agent sighed in relief when the pain stopped. Although his body was still tingling and burning it felt much better than what he had been enduring. His eyes opened fully and this time both Cybertronians in the room noticed him.

"It seems the human has recovered already" Knock Out smirked before continuing, "Dreadwing, believe the cortical physic patch would work wonders"

"Wu-what...?" Agent Fowler groggily attempted to ask.

"Are you sure you would like to know, human?" Fowler scrutinised the sassy, crimson robot, "Of course you would! It is a device that we will use to delve into the depths of your mind and dig out what information we need"

Knock Out gazed at the human as he began struggling as Dreadwing kept his stoic facade up.

"Would that cause damage to the human mind?" He asked.

"That is hardly any of our concern if it does" came the reply from the medic.

"Then proceed Knock Out"

Agent Fowler's muscles tightened and swear drops began to form on his forehead as the Decepticons approached him and began to unclip and untangle the chains. He was lifted into the hands of one of the 'Cons but which one he couldn't tell as he felt a strange zap and everything went black.

It seemed as if it was only a few seconds later when bright light managed to seep through his eyelids.

"Ah, you're awake"

Fowler looked around to see Knock Out holding a strange device in his hand. The best way to describe it was a lightsaber handle with a wire attached to it. His breath hitched when Knock Out began getting closer to him.

"Hold still, fleshy this will only hurt... A lot" he smirked.

"Get on with the procedure, Knock Out" Dreadwing ordered.

Knock Out nodded and prepared to attach the wires to Agent Fowler.

Seconds were practically counting down to Agent Fowler's death. As that wire approached him he could feel the adrenaline pounding through his veins...


	3. Chapter 3

Rafael watched with interest from where he sat on the surface beside a terminal as the Decepticon intelligence officer typed away on one of the main computers in the control room. He continued watching the different patterns that came up the screen. Honestly he loved how the figures twisted and turned in different ways and how they had different ways of linking together. They were interesting and for some reason seemed very familiar... Maybe they were just similar patterns to the ones he had seen back at the Autobot base.

Raf's gaze was torn away from the screen when he realised that no more of the interesting runes were appearing. He now looked at Soundwave who had halted his typing and was now staring at the screen as if in deep thought. Raf watched him carefully as he analysed the mech's body language. Soundwave was... Confused?

Raf looked back up at the screen and narrowed his eyes as he tried to comprehend what the figures meant. He was surprised when he found himself stubbornly saying to himself that it was a new programme for the drones. Raf could only find out if what he thought it might be was right by asking. He swallowed nervously before speaking.

"Uh... Soundwave?"

The spindly cybertronian turned his head towards the young human to show he was listening.

"Is that a programme for the drones?" He asked innocently.

Soundwave nodded at the boy, a little taken back that the boy could understand Cybertronian. A question mark popped up on his visor to ask how Raf could possibly know.

"Well, uh, I don't really know either" Raf said as he looked at the floor whilst shuffling his feet, "I think I know how to help though"

Soundwave nodded and held out his hand for Raf to get on as his way of telling him to proceed. Raf stepped into Soundwave's hand and gripped the long fingers that kept him caged in although he still felt like he was going to fall. He was lifted to the control panel so he could have a clear view.

"It looks like some sort of algorithm. So I'm guessing you need to find the previous terms to calculate the future ones and then use the future ones to craft a new equation"

The silent Decepticon looked at the screen as he mentally worked through the formula with Raf's suggestion. He turned back to face Raf again and put him back on the surface before using a digit to stroke Raf's head in thanks.

"No problem" Raf smiled slightly as Soundwave turned back to his work.

Raf quietly watched as more interesting runes appeared across the screen and became completely hypnotised by them.

It felt like another hour had gone past by the time Raf's trance was broken. He turned to see that the doors of the control room had slid open to reveal Megatron and said mech was now walking towards him. The 12 year old boy began to tremble and desperately tried to remain calm as his living nightmare approached him.

Megatron stopped in front of him and looked down at him scrutinisingly before speaking to his loyal follower.

"Soundwave, has the boy been of any use to you?"

Soundwave faced his master and nodded before playing a recording of what Raf had explained to him about the algorithm needed.

"Well, bot. It seems your friends were correct when they said you would be of more use to me using your knowledge rather than your physical strength"

Raf kept his eyes locked on the ground beneath him and jumped slightly when he felt a cold, metal claw lift his head up.

"I am not scolding you, boy"

Raf seemed to understand that this was Megatron's way of praising others so he nodded gratefully.

"Thank you"

Megatron lifted his optics from the boy as that strange feeling in his spark returned but this time it felt stronger. He decided he needed information fast and activated his comm link.

::Dreadwing, Knock Out, report to the control room immediately and bring the human with you::

"Soundwave whilst we await Knock Out and Dreadwing, take the human to my quarters and place him with his friends"

…..

...

::Dreadwing, Knock Out, report to the control room immediately and bring the human with you::

Knock Out stopped his advance on Agent Fowler and replied to his Lord and master.

::Yes, my liege::

He looked at Dreadwing who just nodded at him. Knock Out rolled his optics in a sassy manner and grinned down at Agent Fowler.

"It seems you escaped this time, fleshy"

Agent Fowler felt the restraints on him disappear before he was picked up by Dreadwing. All three of them left the medbay and turned down many corridors. Fowler could only wait to see where they were going as he was given no indication whatsoever. He was in too much pain to ask so he decided he would just wait to see where he turned up.

The metal on metal of footsteps ran through his head as they echoed down the corridor. One after the other, thumping on his head. He heard a swish but took no notice of it.

"Ah, Knock Out, Dreadwing. Place the human on the main terminal"

Fowler's head shot up to get a good look at the person speaking. He scowled when he saw who the voice belonged to even though he already knew.

"What do you want 'Con? The location of the Autobot base? Not gonna happen. These two maniacs have already tried to get information out of me and it's not working" he narrowed his eyes.

"That will have to wait until later, Agent Fowler. Now, the title 'Agent' means you are a main part of the government doesn't it? It must be one of the reasons you work with the Autobots?"

Fowler was shocked to hear no sneer in his voice or grin on his face. The Decepticon leader was very serious.

"What is it that you want?" Fowler now asked in a slightly lower tone.

"These children are quite different to the ones that I have observed before. They are almost similar to... Cybertronian younglings" Megatron continued to explain, "I want to know all of the information you have of them."

"And allow you to find a twisted way of using it against them? You don't deserve to have even set eyes on those kids." the agent growled bravely.

"Now who said I would use it against them? I am merely curious so indulge me why don't you?" Megatron's temper was rising.

"...No."

"Well then. If that's how it's going to be" the leader snarled, "Soundwave!"

Soundwave looked to his commander.

"Research everything you can about these children. I will make a clear judgement myself if Agent Fowler here is to be of no use."

Soundwave nodded as he began typing away on the main terminal and at lightning speed the screen was covered in files under the children's names and pictures.

Megatron grinned at the amount of information that had been pulled up on screen. His flickered back and forth has he quickly read some of the lines bestowed upon him. His eye ridges did raise after something unsettling reached his processor.

Jackson Darby, 16. Miko Nakadai, 15. Rafael Esquivel, 12. Yet all sighted together 20 years ago.

Megatron's optics eyed that certain file suspiciously. He was still getting used to some human terms but he was sure that wasn't correct. It was impossible. According to their ages they weren't even alive then.

"What is this?" Megatron asked.

Fowler sighed quietly as he looked down. Well, the 'Cons would have found out one way or another the way they were going on.

"Project Steros..." Fowler shook his head with disgust, "Around 50 years ago a project was created to produce new weapons for the U.S. Military. These weapons were being tested on humans that had given consent and new what was going to happen."

"But why would people allow weapons to be tested on themselves knowing the consequences?" Dreadwing found the idea repulsive as did everyone else in the room.

Fowler gave a sad smile.

"Some of them were suicidal or were criminals with a death sentence... The government failed to recognise was that the majority of the people being tested on had in fact been taken, forced to accept or found on the streets."

"How exactly does this link onto the children?" Megatron cocked an optic ridge.

"They were 3 of the 50,000 children taken of the streets and separated over the 50 Steros centres. There was a centre in each state, the control centre, Sephiran, was located in Delaware as the first announced state of America."

"50,000 children? Does your government not give as much respect to children as adults?" Knock Out was genuinely concerned.

"Enough, Knock Out. I recall the children having parents, why were they found on the streets?" Megatron inquired.

"Jack, Miko and Rafael were orphans back then. And believe me, the government cares most about children. In fact looking at the laws of most countries it shows children are shown a lot more respect. The problem with the children was due to a change of the leading scientist and weapons developer. The previous lead scientist had died suddenly and rather mysteriously approximately 17 years into the project and left no clue as to who he wanted to take over after him. Naturally someone had to be hired by the government's doings rather than Project Steros' managers. About 4 years later, someone that had been deemed worthy of the task was hired, however, strange accidents and disappearances took place over the 4 years and in a blink of the eye there was a whole new crew in Steros' main centre, Sephiran."

"What is the difference between the project centres?" Another question from Megatron.

"Nothing really, they all did the same thing but Sephiran was the main centre that controlled what all the other centres did. The new lead scientist, now had full control over all centres and behind the government's back made new decisions about Project Steros. During his 3rd year of being Project Steros' commander it brought him into the 24th year of the project. Over the next 6 years he had kidnapped the 50,000 children mentioned before and an incalculable amount of adults. The 30th year of the project was when some government forces had caught a group of people running, naked and covered in blood, away from the centres. After descriptions of what was happening in the project, the government were furious and put an end to it through the execution of all staff members of the Sephiran centre. It was during the ambushing of the centres that I, as a cadet, discovered 3 newborns at the Sephiran centre... In the office of the mad professor himself."

Fowler glanced up at the Decepticons surrounding him and smiled sadly when he saw the looks of absolute horror on their faces so he continued.

"Before his execution he asked me about the welfare of the three youngsters when I had come to prep him for his sentence. Words lead onto other words until I finally questioned why those 3 children in particular were so important to him. He had answered honestly and stated that he had found them in the middle of nowhere, huddled together in a strange looking pod and covered in small sliver patches. It was when I reported to my superiors that they decided it would be safe to alter their lives such as their location, names, etcetera..."

"Yet they are all in the country that this happened in" Dreadwing stated. The seeker was furious, no child of any species or race deserved to be treated the way the humans had treated their own.

"It wasn't until recently that they were granted permission to return actually. You see, the children were allocated to families that had links to the government directly and could be trusted. One was sent to live with a young nurse in Australia and had his records and files set to show his supposed birth 4 years after the incident. One was sent to live in Tokyo with two traditional Japanese bankers and had her birth recorded 5 years after the incident. And the last one was sent to Spain where he was welcomed into a large family that already had 4 young children and had his birth recorded 8 years after the incident. It was reported back a month that they were now named. Jackson Darby, Miko Nakadai and Rafael Esquivel."

"How... Interesting. But one thing still remains, the ages of the children. How were you able to conceal it so well when they are perceived as so much younger than they actually are?" The Decepticon leader was now out of his stupor and was determined to get his fill of answers.

"The only reason it worked so well is because the doctors noticed that their growth was particularly slow. So slow that it would take them longer to physically and mentally grow."

Megatron was now very interested, still disgusted by the sinister actions of the professor and the project. These children had a different growth cycle, were found in the middle of nowhere in a pod and covered in patches of silver. The warlord now knew why Miko and Jack had protected their friend from fighting even if it was only training. It was sickening.

"Do the children know?"

"Only sections of the story but even they have been altered"

"Many thanks, Agent Fowler. Your knowledge has been most useful." Megatron regarded him before he turned to Knock Out and a vehicon.

"Escort Agent Fowler to a cell"

"Yes, Lord Megatron"

With that the vehicon walked over to Agent Fowler, picked him up and walked out of the control room in the direction of the cells on that floor.

"Knock Out, I want you to develop a machine that detects the frequencies of Cybertronian signatures"

"My liege, if I could as why?"

"There's something about those children..."

"But surely you can't really believe they possess anything valuable-"

"Do as I command Knock Out!" the warlord growled as he turned back to face the terminal that still showed the images of Jack, Miko and Raf.

"Yes, my liege"

Megatron paid him no attention as he turned to return to his lab. Dreadwing seemed to notice his leader's unsettled expression.

"Lord Megatron, I can run the bridge for now if you wish it" he offered.

"Again, you show me your worthiness as second in command, Dreadwing."

The ex-gladiator was now deep in thought as he returned to his quarters where the children were resting. Maybe he would experience that weird feeling in his spark again. He would just have to wait until he was in closer range to them.

And there it was. That completely alien yet familiar feeling. Weak pulses coming from three different directions... Megatron was now very baffled.

The rest of the evening was comprised of Jack and Miko cleaning up in a bath after their nap. Megatron had shockingly been nice enough to give them a bath after their hard work of training. That's what he'd said to them anyway.

Megatron had questioned Raf about his age and intelligence. Naturally Raf hadn't been very open with the Decepticon leader due to fear but once the warlord had told him about his life on Cybertron he felt safer and gave Megatron a confident answer to every question fired at him.

All this time Megatron didn't miss the warm pulses in his spark that were coming from the beings surrounding him. He definitely needed to visit Knock Out.

It wasn't until later on that Megatron felt fear coming from the three of them. It wasn't a pleasant feeling either. Cold and dark.

At that moment Megatron didn't really care about what he was feeling, he wanted to know what this bond he shared with them was and how it was there. Thankfully the children hadn't suspected anything yet but he assumed that they soon would with the way they were reacting to the feelings Megatron was sending to them over the bond.

...

Location unknown

...

**_His optics opened calmly after a surprisingly peaceful night of recharge. He glanced over lovingly at his still recharging smarkmate and leaned over to press a light kiss to her forehead, being careful not to wake her. Primus knew he would be in for it after the energy consuming process she'd gone through just a few cycles ago._**

**_A small squeak caught his attention and he turned his gaze towards a fairly large crib at the end of the berth. The mech smiled and got out of berth to quietly walk over to the crib where his crimson optics met the mixed bright golden and blue optics of a seekerling that was squirming amongst two other slumbering ones. Wanting his other sparklings to stay asleep he quickly yet gently scooped up the now wide awake seekerling that had somehow managed to stay quiet despite its usual tendency to make loud noises. He was thankful though, it's as if his little daughter new that he would have to deal with her crying brothers and recharge deprived sparkmate. He snorted as he cradled his daughter to his chest and gently stroked the tiny, sensitive wing nubs on her back. The little femme would've found the whole ordeal hilarious while he had to deal with it all._**

**_He shook his helm with a smile. After all the loudness was a trait that it seemed HE had passed onto her. The second born of his little trine was definitely the most adventurous and curious. _**

**_After staring at her sire for a few minutes the little seekerling decided that she was tired of being quiet and let out a cute squeaky yawn making him smile. She saw he was now looking down at her and squealed in delight before he hushed her._**

**_"Shhh now, Bluewing. You don't wake your mother and brothers do you?" Her father questioned as he continued to massage her small flickering wing nubs. He knew that she couldn't reply but he thought it was healthy for sparklings to be spoken to whether they could understand or not._**

**_Bluewing squealed in reply so her father took that as a 'Yes daddy, I'd love to wake them up so I can laugh!' _**

**_He shook his head with a small chuckle before bringing his daughter up to his face and nuzzling her small frame causing her to giggle. He felt her grip his red chevron and then felt her mouth wrap around it as she tried to kiss and hug his head but her arms were too small. He cringed as he felt sparkling drool drip down his chevron and brought Bluewing back down to his chest._**

**_"Thank you, Blue" he said as he wiped the drool off of his chevron and turned to go and sit back on his and his sparkmate's berth with his seekerling. However he turned and saw his sparkmate was awake and was watching him and Bluewing with a happy smile._**

**_"Good morning, love" he said with a smile._**

**_"Good morning, sweet spark" she smiled back at him until she heard her daughter squeal, "And good morning to you too, Blue. Has daddy been a good mech this morning?" She cooed._**

**_Her daughter replied with yet another squeal as she snuggled into her father's chest. Both parents smiled down at her but their smiles grew when they heard the sound of nonsensical babble coming from the crib._**

**_Both him and his sparkmate looked into the crib to see the oldest of the trine, Skystorm, just about waking up. Once he had gained his senses he looked up and smiled happily as he saw his creators and his sister in their sire's arms. He babbled to his younger brother, Northstar, that was lying next to him still in recharge. Skystorm honestly meant to wake his brother up nicely so he wore a shocked and slightly scared expression when his brother started crying. However when he saw Blue giggling he thought it was quite funny too and joined in giggling._**

**_He picked up Skystorm whilst their mother picked up the youngest sparkling and cradled him to her chest plates as she allowed them to part revealing two feeding nubs._**

**_"You know, I thought it would've been Blue that caused this" he chuckled to his mate as he held two of his sparklings to his chest._**

**_"I think with these three we should begin to expect the unexpected" the femme smiled as she helped her youngest seekerling latch onto one of her feeding nubs. Soon the sound of suckling had replaced Northstar's cries however it triggered more sound from the other seekerlings. They wanted to feed too but unfortunately there was currently only one nub between two sparklings._**

**_The mech holding the two squeaking and chirping sparklings saw the look on his partner's face and smiled sweetly._**

**_"It's alright, my spark. I'll take them into the main room and keep them preoccupied until Northstar finishes" _**

**_"Thank you, sweet spark" the femme smiled as she pressed her lips to his._**

Starscream's optics opened and landed on the other side of his berth where he had expected his sparkmate to be. She wasn't there so he looked to the end of the berth for the crib that held his sparklings. It wasn't there.

The seeker sighed and smacked a servo over his face out of sheer disappointment. He had been fooled by a dream. What was he not fooled by nowadays?!

He sighed and bit his lip as he reflected on the dream he had just experienced. Why now? Why when he was alone? Why when it was past the point of ever earning his mate's forgiveness? Why when his sparklings were dead?

Starscream stubbornly wiped away tears that were about to fall and shook his head. He wanted his family back. If he hadn't been such an idiot back on Cybertron then he could've kept his family and found a safe place in the universe to raise his children with his mate. He wanted to be able to hold his little trine and sparkmate in his arms and never let them go. He couldn't go back to recharge, his spark was aching too much to allow him to rest.

He began to walk aimlessly around The Harbinger as he wondered what could've triggered his spark to jolt into action and start searching for the creation bonds that he shared with his sparklings that were presumed dead.


	4. Chapter 4

"We can walk you know" Miko stated in an agitated tone as Megatron scooped up her and the boys once again.

"Watch your mouth, sparkling," Megatron warned the young girl once again for her attitude towards him, "I was assuming that you didn't want to walk all they way to the med bay."

"Why are we going to the med bay?" asked Jack.

"Knock Out will be running some scans on you all, I don't want my pets to be unwell now do I?"

That wasn't exactly the truth. Megatron wanted to ask Knock Out about the feeling he got when he was around the children and how it changed depending on which one he was around. He looked down and watched as he felt the three humans he was currently carrying sigh and fall limp against him.

After a few minutes of twisting and turning down what seemed like an endless amount of corridors the four of them finally arrived in the medbay.

"Ah, Lord Megatron, what can I do for you?" Knock Out asked in greeting as his master walked into the med bay.

"Scan the humans in anyway possible way to detect anomalies."

"Of course, my liege" Knock Out replied in his sassy voice.

"I am putting you in charge of them until I return" Megatron stated as he set the children down on the med table where all of Knock Out's tools lay.

"You're not staying for the procedure, my liege?"

"I have other matters that are in need of dealing with"

Knock Out nodded and watched as his leader turned and left after giving the children a look that could easily be translated as 'Stay put or else'.

Knock Out turned to set up the equipment he would need to perform the scans. This involved him having his back to the three mischievous human children.

Raf tapped Miko and Jack on their arms and pointed to the vent that was on the wall... right next to them... No effort needed to even open it as they could already fit through the gaps.

Jack and Miko silently praised their younger friend and began helping each other climb through. Jack kept watch to see if Knock Out turned around at all but he was in his own world preparing the equipment that he would need for the scans that weren't going to be taking place.

They were now all successfully in the venting system and were beginning to walk down when Miko stopped all of them.

"Dudes, we forgot Fowler!" she whispered loudly.

"This is the venting system that most likely leads all around the Nemesis. We can walk around and try and find him." Raf replied.

"The last time Megatron mentioned him he was in a cell." Jack added on.

"But there's bound to be hundreds of cells on this ship!" Raf squeaked.

"Maybe he's in a cell nearby to the control room. Let's start there and we can carry on after that." Miko carried on walking.

...

Autobot Base

...

"Ratchet, how is the decoding of the Decepticon cloaking coming along?" Optimus asked calmly.

Everyone knew that Optimus was not calm though. Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Arcee may be the main guardians of the human children but Optimus still felt that they were his charges too.

"It's difficult, Optimus. I can't seem to find any part where I can dig in and begin" the old medic sighed shaking his helm.

Bulkhead and Bumblebee looked at Ratchet with saddened expressions.

"Ratch, are you sure. There has to be a way in! It can't just be completely unbreakable!"

"Bulkhead, I have tried over and over again but i'm just going around in circles"

Just as Bulkhead was about to demand that Ratchet wasn't doing enough, Arcee came speeding back into base with June. It had been almost a week and June looked rough. She not only had the sadness of losing her son to the Decepticons but she also had to lie to both Raf's family that he was staying at their house to finish a project with Jack and Miko's host parents with the exact same story.

"Mrs Darby, how are you?" the Prime asked the forlorn woman as she got off Arcee and allowed the two-wheeler to transform back into humanoid mode.

"I don't think I can express how guilty I feel. Optimus, I have to lie to two families about the whereabouts of their children. They think that they're with Jack at our house completing a project when on fact theirs lives are in danger. Every time I speak to them it only reminds me of my Jackson. Gone, completely ripped away from me." she snapped in reply.

Arcee could only look at the poor woman with sad optics, she knew exactly what June was going through.

"I am truly sorry, Mrs Darby. I can only blame myself for this incident." Optimus bowed his head in a form of apology.

"It wasn't your fault, Optimus." June's expression softened and she smiled slightly at the colossal red and blue leader.

"It must be hard. I mean, it must be hard having the person you brought into this world and raised just suddenly taken from you." Bulkhead said sadly.

Bumblebee beeped angrily at Bulkhead as Ratchet swatted him over the helm.

"No, you guys its fine. I think it is time you guys found out the truth anyway..."

"Truth?" Arcee questioned.

June looked at all five Autobots. They looked hopeful yet worried and she couldn't help but wonder what each of their reactions would be composed of when they heard her story.

"Jack, Miko and Rafael are all adopted," she heard Arcee gasp, "They had been through experiments during Project Steros which had been under the control of a professor. All I know is that the government wanted them to be split and sent to new homes immediately. I was given all the information and entrusted with Jack after I was recommended by a friend in the government. I didn't know of Raf and Miko and their futures, so when I heard Jack mention them I was suspicious, I had to see them for myself. When I did, I realized that they were together again and it made me want to keep the secret under an even tighter lock. I didn't want to put them in danger, some of the professor's scientists managed to escape trial and I didn't want them to go through it all again." June could feel the pain in her throat as her eyes glistened with gathering tears.

Optimus was honestly shocked. He didn't think that the children had gone through so much. All it did was make him feel like he had failed them even more. He hadn't been able to see through the barrier that each of them had put up. If he thought of them as his own sparklings then surely he should've seen through their disguises. His optics spoke his thoughts and June smiled up at him.

"Optimus, it's fine," she insisted, "The only ones at fault are the Decepticons."

Optimus looked away before a question came to his processor.

"Do the children know about their pasts?" He asked.

He felt guilty again when June flinched slightly before relaxing.

"I remember Jack kept on coming to me about once every week when he was about 6 and stopped around 10 or 11. He kept telling me that he was having a nightmare with an evil man and two other babies next to him. There was fighting go on around him and the other little boy, who I'm guessing was Raf, would always become scared when he saw it. I had to tell him what happened, what he went through only I fed him only half of the story. I couldn't leave him having this re-occurring memory thinking it was a nightmare. I told him that he was stolen from me and I got him back in the end. Both Miko and Raf were told the same story when they complained about the nightmares, so I was told."

"Wait, so Jack, Miko and Raf don't know they're adopted?" Ratchet asked with a shocked expression.

'The children were experimented on' Optimus repeated to himself in his head. He could feel his anger rising in his spark.

"The children cannot know that they're adopted, it would ruin the cover up and compel them to go in search of what is left of the professor. Unfortunately they were tested on from when they were found and I can't have them finding any solid evidence"

"Found?" Bulkhead was asking his question now.

"Yes, I was never told where or when though"

"What puzzles me is the age difference between the children if they were all babies at the same time" Arcee said.

"A government cover up to try and shove away the incident"

"June, I am truly sorry" Arcee said to the devastated nurse making her sadness crystal clear.

Arcee would help June get her adopted son back and would also go with June on keeping the adoption a secret from Jack if it meant securing his safety. Bulkhead still couldn't believe his best friend was adopted and didn't know it. It angered him that he couldn't be honest but he wanted her to be safe. Bumblebee was also still in shock but he loved his little friend and would do anything to keep Raf away from harm. Optimus and Ratchet shared looks of sympathy. Both never had sparklings of their own but they certainly knew what it was like to lose someone and have to keep a massive secret from them that could affect their life. They would not give up on decoding that cloaking shield until they found a way in.

They would get through this together. As a family.

...

The Harbinger

...

Starscream was still puzzled by what caused his little dream and then the feel of his spark being dragged around, searching for the bond it shared with his sparklings. It had been a few days since he had the dream and now he felt tugging at his spark and he knew that it was not his sparkmate. One, she hates him and doesn't want to speak to him after his actions and two, the tugging wasn't strong enough to have belonged to an adult spark. There were also three different types of tugs, indicating the difference between his three sparklings.

The tugs in his spark could only remind him of the beautiful days before the war was official when he and his sparkmate used to meet in their special place daily.

**_They had bonded a while ago and he could feel the excitement with a mix of worry from her side of the bond as she told him to meet her in their place but she wanted speak to him immediately. At first he wasn't sure what to think. Why would she want to speak to him so suddenly when they had a meeting time at their place. Why couldn't it wait?_**

**_When he got there, he was waiting for his sparkmate and then heard the sound of her engine and next thing he knew she was in his arms, blue optics gleaming with joy._**

**_"What is it that was so important you couldn't have waited a few more clicks?," he teased as he kissed her._**

**_She looked down, she seemed... Nervous?_**

**_This was not like his sparkmate. He lifted her helm with one of his sharp claws so their optics met._**

**_"What is it, sweet spark?"_**

**_"Starcream, I... You..."_**

**_"Go on," he was becoming a bit worried now._**

**_"I'm... I'm carrying... You're going to be a father." she half smiled at him, unsure if he would be happy or not._**

**_It felt like time itself had frozen. He couldn't describe how he felt... Pure happiness?_**

**_He surprised the frag out of his uncertain sparkmate by pulling her up into his arms and kissing her passionately._**

**_"You're okay with this?" she asked._**

**_"Of course! I'm going to be having them with you, as long as we both stick together then I am the happiest and luckiest mech alive!" he smiled as he pulled her down to the floor and hugged he tightly but not so tight to avoid damaging the small spark that his bonded was carrying._**

**_"Starscream, you do realize that sounded really cheesy right?" she laughed at him as he nibbled at the cables on her neck._**

**_"I know but I don't care," he laughed with her, "How far along are you?"_**

**_"3 stellar-cycles"_**

**_"I'm moving in." he declared._**

**_"Wow, Star. I forgot how blunt you could be." she chuckled._**

**_"Well, I want to be there for you and help you every step of the way until our sparkling arrives."_**

**_"Oh, one more thing Star." she grinned._**

**_"Yes, sweet spark, i'm listening." he said as he continued to nibble and suck at her throat cables._**

**_"We're having triplets."_**

**_He felt his processor freeze._**

**_"I think I need to lie down for a while..." he said woozily. _**

Starscream remembered that moment well and chuckled lowly at his reaction. Primus had he been wrong when he said sparkling. Not even twins, but triplets!

His own little trine.

He got back on track and thought about what he should do about the situation. Should he contact his sparkmate or would she become even more angry at him? He hated that she hated him! If only he had some fragging self-control that time in the command room...

He would leave his sparkmate out of this for now until he was sure. He didn't want to upset her further by bringing back an upsetting memory and then it turns out to be some strange false alarm. Yes, he would try and find his sparklings and then hopefully he and his mate could be one again and have the chance to raise their sparklings together.

...

Out in the skies

...

Megatron was out having a peaceful flight. It had been a while since he had been given the opportunity to leave the ship without any of his mindless followers and be able to focus on his own personal thoughts.

Those children were something important to him. He could just tell, the way his spark reacted when he was near them, how he could control the comfort of them...

It made him think back to the time when his sparkmate wouldn't stop going on about wanting sparklings. Before she died she had practically begged him to have a sparkling and he wasn't going to disappoint her, he loved her too much and he quite liked the thought of becoming a sire... And he rather enjoyed the activities involved in creating a sparkling. He chuckled to himself at that thought.

They had tried for a sparkling quite a few times but they never actually managed to confirm the news that she was carrying the Decepticon heir. It had crushed his spark into pieces the day she was killed. All his hopes of having a family were destroyed and despite some of his now deceased officers' constant nagging that he needed to produce an heir he refused to even entertain the thought. It made him wonder if she was with spark at the time of her death because if he remembered clearly, she stopped bugging him as much a couple cycles before her death.

These children could be what remained of his sparkmate's spark, their sparklings. There was the belief that Primus handles what happens to unborn sparks if he saw danger in their future, and as much as Megatron hated to say it, Primus probably had a reason. He probably had seen the danger that was coming to the sparklings and allowed their sparks to go into human forms.

The Decepticon leader was now fully convinced that they were his children just in a new life.

He was just about to start negotiating with himself if he should tell the children or not but he was interrupted by Knock Out comming him.

"Knock Out, I assume everything is complete"

"Uh, actually no, Lord Megatron" Knock Out sounded worried.

"It shouldn't take that long to scan three human children" Megatron snorted.

"W-well, I suppose if you're doing a scan on three human children then you need to actually h-have t-the three h-human children" the medic now sounded like he wanted to crawl into a hole and away from Megatron who was no doubt VERY annoyed.

"ARE YOU TELLING ME YOU LOST THEM?!"

"I only turned my back for a second and then they were gone, my liege"

"PERHAPS I SHOULD RE-THINK YOUR WORTHINESS!" Megatron screamed at him before cutting the comm link.

He then commed Soundwave, "Soundwave, issue a high alert. The human children have gone missing and need to be found immediately"

He ended the comm link directly after, he could count on Soundwave to do the right thing. He sped back to the Nemesis as fast as he could.

...

In the vents of the Nemesis

...

"Fowler" all three kids whispered to their adult friend.

Agent Fowler looked through the vent and saw the three kids waving at him to join them. He wasted no time and quietly jogged over before any vehicons could notice. The kids began to help him into the vent but Soundwave had just received the comm from his Lord and had gone to the brig to check on Agent Fowler and saw him and the children in the vent.

He was quick to try and use his tentacles to grab them but missed as they managed to jump further back into the vent after they'd pulled the human adult in.

They began to sprint further into the complex system of passages that seemed to never end. Only a few minutes later did they hear a calming voice that seemed to send relaxation running through the veins of their stressed bodies. It was Megatron calling to them.

He was calling them to come back obediently and they wouldn't be punished. Agent Fowler could tell it was Megatron speaking but couldn't understand what he was saying. Assuming he was speaking in Cybertronian only confused the agent when he saw that Jack, Miko and Raf could clearly understand what the tyrant was saying.

They were still running until Jack stopped them and climbed through a vent that was in an isolated room. It looked like a bridge room. They could escape this miserable ship!

They all climbed up onto the controls and began to type in random coordinates, hoping the 'bots would sense the activity and come for them.

Raf had managed to fire up the ground bridge and all of them prepared to run through it.

"Wait, let me go first. I wanna check that its safe before I allow you to go through" Agent Fowler said as he walked through onto grass.

The kids looked back as they heard loud foot steps approaching them, and fast.

...

Megatron was now in the control room with Dreadwing, Soundwave and numerous vehicons that were running around. Soundwave's visor suddenly beeped loudly when he detected activity coming from '5th floor Bridge Room'.

"Dreadwing with me!," Megatron commanded and began sprinting towards the room that the humans were supposedly in.

All that was going through Megatrons mind was 'I will not allow those children to leave me. Not if they are possibly what is left of my sparkmate!'

He and Dreadwing raced towards the room with their weapons charged in case of an Autobot attack.

...

Autobot base

...

"Optimus! Agent Fowler's signal is outside the Nemesis and a ground bridge is nearby" Ratchet told his leader.

"Lock onto the coordinates! Bumblebee, Arcee, Bulkhead, prepare to transform and roll out!"

The three guardians were more than ready to rumble as they drove through the ground bridge with Optimus.

...

Agent Fowler shouted to the 'bots as he saw them run through their ground bridge. They were heading right towards the Decepticon ground bridge. Ratchet had come out as well and picked up Agent Fowler in his servos. He watched as the 'bots put all of their power into speed and tore through the air towards the opposing side's ground bridge. The 'bots were just about to smash through the Decepticon ground bridge when it suddenly closed making the speeding Autobots run right past it.

"NO!," Bulkhead screamed as he smashed his fist into a giant rock nearby.

Bumblebee was beeping angrily and Arcee looked like she wanted to go on a killing spree.

Ratchet looked at Optimus with sympathy as he watched his leaders face turn from one of anger to an upset one.

...

Jack, Miko and Raf jumped around and saw Megatron and Dreadwing come running into the room and Dreadwing was quick to close the bridge as Megatron snatched up the three children.

Oh, he was so pissed.

The children knew not to struggle, knowing it would only make things worse for them and stayed put in the vice-like grip of Megatron's servo.

"HOW DARE YOU?!" Megatron screamed at the children making them flinch and look down, "HAVE I BEEN UNFAIR TO YOU?! HAVE I HARMED YOU?! HAVE I DONE ANYTHING ON THIS WARSHIP THAT WOULD GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO RUN FROM ME?!" he continued shouting at them.

None of the children answered, not that he wanted them to.

He completely ignored Dreadwing and began stomping towards the brig on that same floor.

When he got there he shoved past the guards, yanked open a cell door and threw the children in not caring if he hurt them or not.

Jack, Miko and Raf felt their nerves crunch as pain travelled throughout their bodies. Being thrown down wasn't exactly a pleasure.

Megatron glared at them and growled before ordering the guards to keep watch of the kids.

It was cold in the cell and they were learning that the hard way right now.

Megatron had left them in the cell, scared, in pain and freezing.

He left them crying softly until they fell asleep.

...

Arcee suddenly felt pain coursing through her spark but she knew it wasn't hers...

She fell to the ground and saw the blurred images of he teammates trying to help her before she blacked out.

...

Starscream felt pain tear through his spark and he knew it wasn't his but his sparklings. It angered him that his sparklings were in pain. He wanted to kill whoever was putting them through this pain!

Starscream began to worry and decided it would be best to speak to his sparkmate about this. After all, he didn't know if his sparkmate had caught on yet or not.

...

**Arcee snuggled into her sparkmates chest as she watched their three sparklings play on the floor in front of them.**

**Skystorm, the oldest of the triplets was reaching up to try and grab a picture frame and his parents found this to be an amusing sight as there was no way he could reach it.**

**Bluewing, the second of the triplets was busy laughing at her brother's ridiculous attempts to try and grasp something that was far out of his reach.**

**Northstar, the youngest of the triplets was watching his two older-by-minutes siblings responding with little twitches of his growing wings as they did completely illogical things. He liked to sit there and observe them because it was rather hilarious to do so!**

**Arcee watched them as her sparkmate chuckled at them. Their sparklings really were something else.** **She stood up and picked up Northstar and cradled him to her chest as he gazed up at her with bright blue optics.**

**Her sparkmate came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder. Northstar tried to reach for his face and his father chuckled when he gave up with an annoyed sigh and rested against his mother's chest once again. Arcee smiled down at her youngest son and looked over to where her daughter and older son were still up to their antics. **

**She smiled in amusement when she thought about how the two would be when they were older, probably causing trouble together. She laughed when the image of her sparkmate running after the two crossed her mind before she turned to her sparkmate and kissed him but pulled away when she felt two tiny bodies press themselves against her legs. **

**Her sparkmate bent down and picked them up easily as they chirped to each other as if they were in some deep discussion about something very serious. Northstar chirped at them and waved his little arms a little as if trying to exaggerate on something that was a vital part of the deep discussion that the seekerlets were having. Bluewing and Skystorm both twitched their developing wings in response to their younger brother and chirped back at him to continue their conversation.**

**The parents shared a laugh as they watched their precious little ones.**

**"Arcee, you did a great job. They're beautiful" her sparkmate said with a smile.**

**"Sweet spark, you're forgetting that you helped with their creation" she smiled as he bent down and captured her lips with his.**

**"Yes, but I know that they definitely got their beauty from you" he winked at her teasingly.**

**"You've always been such a flirt" she chuckled.**

Arcee opened her optics slowly as she gained her senses. She was in the med bay with Optimus and Ratchet.

"Arcee, how are you feeling?" Optimus asked her as he helped her sit up on the medical berth.

"I'm fine, Optimus. It was just... A strange dream" she lied as she held her helm.

"Well, we definitely got an insight on what your little _dream_ was about" Ratchet sighed.

"What are you talking about?" she tried to play it off even though she knew it was no use.

"Why didn't you tell us about your sparklings, Arcee?" Optimus asked calmly as his blue optics gazed into hers.


	5. Chapter 5

**WARNING: Slight interfacing session in this chapter but very brief.**

It was quiet on the Nemesis to the point someone might have thought that they were in the time period before the big commotion with the humans being captured. However, you could just about hear snoring coming from the med bay, not from one person but from multiple.

Jack's stormy dark blue eyes opened slowly as he woke up. Next to him were his two best friends sleeping soundly. Sleeping soundly... He could've sworn he was freezing before he fell asleep and now hear he was feeling warm, comfortable and... Relaxed?

Something was soothing him and providing the warmth, the teenage boy knew it wasn't a blanket or duvet because he was pretty sure he couldn't feel one when he moved his hands around on the surface of the cell. The cell...The cell floor was rough but this surface was warm and smooth until there was a gap that dipped into a sort of light hole. Then there was this pattern that he could feel, just tracing his fingers over had finally gained his senses and realized that he and his friends were in fact not in the cell that they were thrown into the previous night.

They were on Megatron's chest, resting directly over his spark chamber. Jack shot upright and began to panic. He was on the Decepticon leader's chest, snuggled up close to him after he had left them injured and scared in the cold cell that eventually made them pass out from the freezing could feel the panic coming from one of the humans, thought it was weak he could tell which one it was coming from.

The 'oldest' of the trio. opened his optics just enough so that he could see but not enough to allow anyone to find out that he was awake. He saw the boy sat up and shaking. He decided to conduct a little test and sent 'safety' to Jack. The boy instantly stopped shaking and his upright posture slumped as he accepted the then Jack stood and began to try and wake his friends. Some weird safe feeling had just completely entered him, someone else's emotions, not his! It wasn't possible!Jack was gently shaking his friends, successfully rousing them from their sleep and they both looked aggravated.

"Jack, when I'm sleeping... DON'T WAKE ME UP!" Miko screamed and caused Megatron to fully open his optics. After all, what sort of being wouldn't wake up after being in the same room as the girl that had just produced the scream of the century, so he had to play along and 'wake up'.

"Miko, you didn't need to shout," Raf moaned, "What is it, Jack?"

Jack looked at his friends then realized that Megatron was awake and decided to change his excuse for waking them... even if it was pretty pathetic.

"Girl, I swear I'm going to get Knock Out to attach a voice level controller to you" Megatron dead panned, he was not a fan of hearing high pitched screams and shouts in the morning after he had woken up just a few minutes ago.

"It wouldn't have happened if Jackson here didn't wake me up" she hissed."I had a reason!" Jack hissed back at her.

"Oh yeah, what was it then?!"Jack gazed at Megatron out of the corner of his eyes. There was no way he was going to diss the ruthless giant to his face. He looked at Miko and Raf sheepishly and that served as an answer for his two younger friends.

"Jack, really?" Raf moaned yet again."No... I... uhhhmmmmm..."Megatron raised an optic ridge as he watched him struggle with his words."I just wanted to say 'hi'" he smiled at the two humans and cybertronian in front of him.

"FU-"

"MIKO! NOT IN FRONT OF RAF!"

"Fine. Raf close your eyes" she commanded did as he was told and turned away, Miko smiled and thanked Raf before turned towards watched the human teens with interest. What in the pits of Kaon were they doing?

Miko smiled sweetly at Jack before her face screwed up and she brought her hand up, middle finger erect."Oh haha, Miko. Real mature" he rolled his eyes.

"Raf you can open your eyes now" Miko almost sung to him.

"Was that it?" Megatron had definitely been expecting more, not a simple hand gesture, "I don't see what the point of it is" he said with a puzzled look.

"Its meant as an offence to someone. A rude gesture" Jack told the puzzled leader.

"And you're not offended by it?" he asked.

"No." Jack poker faced, "It's Miko, she's a close friend and can sort of get away with that stuff with me but if she did it to someone else then she would probably get in trouble or offend someone."

"Why don't you try it on your troops?" Miko beamed.

"Because I don't waste my energy on inferior beings," he said bluntly as his red optics studied them.

"But according to you we are inferior beings and you're wasting your energy on us" Raf said innocently.

"Yes, but there is something that separates you from other people of your kind. Something very intriguing about the three of you, especially when together"

"So if we're different and intriguing then why did you throw us into a cold cell?" Jack glared at the Decepticon looked like he almost flinched. Almost.

He cupped the three children in his left servo as he sat up on his berth and swung his legs over the side.

"You worried me. As I said before, there is something that separates you from others of your kind and I didn't want you to leave before I could at least find out what it is that makes you so different," Megatron wanted to tell them the truth. About how there was a massive possibility that they could be his sparklings but it would be too far and probably drive them to want to escape again if they thought he was going bonkers.

The kids looked up from their place on his lap. The mech was... worried?

"You were worried?" Raf asked in a disbelieving looked hesitant as he answered.

For him this was the equivalent of admitting a weakness. He really wasn't the mech to show affection.

"Yes, which is why I was angry at the three of you," he looked down at them and met their questioning gazes, "And also... I... apologise if I caused you pain." he looked away from them. How embarrassing! He had never had to say that to anyone in his life especially to humans! But there was a chance that these children were not proper humans and were his sparklings and surely a parent was meant to care for their child. That involved apologising and thanking.

Miko, Raf and Jack all stared up the silver warlord that had kidnapped them with looks of absolute confusion. He was sorry? This was not like the Decepticon Leader that they knew and had heard stories anything else could be said, a walking bright red being came into the med bay.

"Good, you're all awake," he smirked at the children, "my liege I have completed the test and have answers for you," he bowed slightly to his leader.

"Do not keep me waiting, Knock Out," Megatron said as he stood up with the children cupped in his servos.

"Well, the human children seem to possess certain anomalies that wouldn't allow a human heart to function, these anomalies however, are perfect for a spark to function which made me question how they were still alive. I then took a further look and compared their hearts to your spark and it showed a familiar pattern. They somehow, share a bond with you, Lord Megatron."

"What sort of bond?" Megatron asked, the excitement building up inside him.

"I can't tell. the scans cannot go that deep but there is definitely energy being exchanged even if it is only a small, weak amount. However, when I have finished the machine that you requested, that should be able to tell as it is a machine that is created to detect those sorts of things," the medic told his felt the warlord.

Megatron felt the happiness in his spark deflate but not entirely. Fair enough he didn't know what sort of bond he had with the children but it was obviously a large one that was shared between the four of them and slowly becoming stronger.

"Knock Out, I want you to focus on that machine and that machine only. I will order others to take your shifts so that you may have more time to finish the machine and complete it faster"

"Thank you, my liege. That machine is officially my number one priority... Well apart from buffing," KnockOut shrugged.

"How about I crush the buffing tools so you're quicker?" Megatron sneered.

"N-no, my liege. Its fine, I won't use them until I have completed my number one goal of building the machine," KnockOut said nervously

."Make sure you stick to that," the tyrant snorted.

He began walking out of the med bay and stared down at the children in his servos, not believing what he was seeing. They were completely frozen, the only sort of movement he could feel from them were their lungs expanding and shrinking as they breathed.

"Humans," Megatron said loudly to try and capture their turned and looked at him with horrified expressions.

Not the sort of expressions he thought they would look at him with but they were new to the whole bond thing so he would let it pass... Just this decided he would head back to his quarters. He was still fairly worn out and the children looked stressed to the point they could do with a tapped in the code to his personal quarters and lay down on his berth.

He pushed the children up to his chest where his spark was located and lay them down on it. They immediately calmed down when they felt the radiating warmth and comfort that surrounded them and it started to make them feel Decepticon Lord watched as the three young humans he shared a bond with were lulled to sleep by the calm beating of his spark. It made him wonder if he really did have a creator bond with these sparklings, it only seemed logical.

Eventually he gave up on wondering about what sort of bond he shared with them and allowed recharge to overtake him. He would just have to wait until KnockOut had finished with the machine

.…..

The Autobot Base

...

"Sparklings? Yeah, Optimus, I have sparklings..." Arcee replied sarcastically, rolling her optics in an attempt to make her argument seem true.

"Arcee, do not try to fool us," Ratchet almost scolded her, "You were talking during your recharge and we heard everything"

"Everything?" Arcee asked feeling worry build up inside of her.

"Your sparklings sound like they were little troublemakers" Optimus gave her one of his rare had coolant building in her eyes after that comment.

She sighed and decided she may as well come clean, "Yeah, they definitely got that from their sire" she half smiled, not sure if she should be smiling at her reply.

"One more thing, who is the sire?" Ratchet asked.

"Uh..."

"Ratchet, do not rush Arcee. She will tell us when she feels she is comfortable"

Arcee looked at him with a thankful smile while Ratchet muttered something under his breath and began to continue his attempts at breaking through the Nemesis' cloaking device. When they were sure that the medic had completely zoned out after allowing his mind to become dedicated to finding a way to break through the cloak Optimus turned to Arcee.

"Arcee, I know you are not one for expressing emotions when it comes to sensitive issues but I want you to know that I and the rest of Team Prime will be here to help. You can speak to me anytime" he gazed down at her with a slight smile.

"Thanks, Optimus" she replied with a small smile of her own and then stood and walked out of the med bay, planning on heading back to her was quickly stopped by Bumblebee and Bulkhead bombarding her with questions, asking what happened, how she feels, if she is okay, if she is in pain...

"I'm fine guys, really" she gave a small laugh at their worrying.

"You didn't look so fine when you fell to the ground whimpering in pain" Bulkhead said to her as Bumblebee beeped in agreement.

_::Yeah, 'Cee. You scared all of us, especially Optimus, you should have seen the look on his face plates. Its as if he-::_

"Uh, Bee..." Bulkhead interrupted him with a light punch to the looked at him with question dancing in his optics but they soon widened and the thought of "WHOOPS" came to mind when Bulkhead nodded towards the entrance of the med bay and saw Optimus staring at him, not once moving.

_::Haha, ooookkkaaaaayyyyy... SHEESH, I am one tired 'bot. Gonna go rest in my quarters BYE:: _Bumblebee was quick to run down the hallway towards his quarters. Bulkhead and Arcee laughed at their friend and his antics while Optimus was watching the direction that Bumblebee had run off to.

"Well, I've gotta go on patrol so take care, 'Cee"

Arcee nodded at him in farewell and then looked over in Optimus' direction.

"What was that about?" he simply looked at her and shook his head slightly.

"Arcee..." the Prime stumbled, trying to choose his words without looking like a complete fool, "... I care very much for as I do the rest of Team Prime. I do not want anymore of my soldiers to be lost or damaged"

"From the way 'Bee explained it sounded like something a little bit different"

"Bumblebee is young"

"And?"

Optimus was quiet for a minute or two until it seemed he had gathered his bearings and was about to reply until..."Optimus!" Ratchet called from the medbay. Optimus sighed and allowed his optics to lock with Arcee's before he walked calmly to Ratchet even though he seemed a little agitated.

"Yes, Ratchet?"

"I have received an encrypted message addressed to Arcee"

"Who from?" Arcee joined the tapped a few buttons and up popped a picture that Arcee hoped she would never see for the rest of her life-cycle.

"Starscream," he muttered, "He wants to meet with you at the coordinates that he has provided"

"Bridge me there, Ratchet" she growled.

"I will not allow it. Arcee, if he wants to meet with you alone then it is imperative that we must think of the possibilities of what he is planning"

"But Optimus, you don't understand. I'll be fine. He won't do anything." Arcee really wanted to go and meet him.

She wanted to see that he was okay even though she hated him. She wanted to feel his touch again even though she loathed him completely. She wanted to feel his spark energy mixing with hers even though she despised him...She also needed to speak to him about that problem involving sparklings. She had to go!

"Arcee, I cannot let you go alone-"

"Optimus," she touched his arm softly with her servo, "I'll be fine, please just trust me on this"

His spark fluttered and he seemed to immediately calm down when she touched him but he continued his act and sighed, he had to let her go. If she wanted this then he wouldn't want to disappoint her by not allowing her to go. But then there was the large possibility of danger and he didn't want her to get hurt or offlined. However he finally gave into her wishes.

"Be careful" he said as he looked her in the optics with a soft look but let her know that he was partly ordering her.

"Thank you, Optimus," she turned to Ratchet, "I'll take that bridge now, Ratchet."

The swirling vortex that was the ground bridge burst to life and Arcee walked through.

When she stepped out of it she took in the beautiful surroundings. She was on a cliff that had a small stream of water that led to a small pond. The cliff looked over a forest looking place and she realized that she was just at the edge of the forest that was on the same level as her. The sun was dazzling brightly and she was relaxed by the sound of the water from the pond and stream trickling. The trees that coated the land around her were covered in different coloured leaves ranging from a purple to a red. The sight was astonishing and then she realized that was what Starscream wanted her to think.

Oh well, she would say what he wanted her to say. She wasn't going to lie like a young turned and her optics landed on the sight of Starscream, who must have come up behind her because his face was only a few inches from hers. He must have planned this scenic view from the start! Such a flirt, like back on Cybertron before the war broke out, she smirked internally.

"Arcee..." he said quietly as he reached a servo out and stroked her cheek softly with those sharp, sinful talons.

"What is it that you want, Starscream?" she said his name as if it left a vile taste in her mouth.

"Arcee, I'm sorry for everything. I realized when I began to devote myself more and more to the cause that I wasn't seeing you as much. And then the incident with Cliffjumper... I'm going to be honest and say that I do not have an excuse for his murder. I know you hate me and I don't blame you because I hate me too. But I have two reasons for inviting you here, sweet spark"

CLANG!

"OUCH! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Starscream squealed as he rubbed his now aching helm.

"That was for 'Cliff" she sneered."As I was saying, I have two reasons for this" he began again.

"To be honest, the only reason I came is because I needed to discuss something with you" she sighed as she moved forward and placed her helm under his chin and rested herself against his chest.

"And what might that be?" he asked softly as he slowly wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his helm on top of hers. His spark beat increased at the contact that had been made with his sparkmate after so many was quick to push away from him, tears dripping down her face.

"I should hate you, Starscream! I should hate you for extinguishing Cliffjumper, for joining the Decepticons, for giving us a reason to have to send our sparklings away!" she shouted at him before she said quietly "But, I can't, Star..."

Starscream felt his spark breaking as she brought back those old memories from Cybertron that had torn them both apart.

"Arcee, trust me, I hate myself for causing you pain. But this is war, what do you think happens in them?! People die!" he apologized but argued back at the same time.

"But you knew how close 'Cliff and I were! You knew and you were jealous that he was my best friend, my partner!" she shouted angrily back at him "If you cared you wouldn't have killed the only person that I could trust!"

He felt his spark continue to break as the words pierced him. Was Cliffjumper really the only person she could trust?

"I do care!" he shouted back, feeling tears building up in his crimson optics.

"Then tell me your real reason for killing 'Cliff" she growled although she could feel her own tears about to sighed, his helm drooped as he stepped closer to his sparkmate.

He then lifted his helm and looked directly into her optics. Her beautiful blue optics that had the faintest line of purple surrounding the inner circle. Her beautiful optics that he would look into every night back on Cybertron as they watched the two moons glow in the peaceful dark of the night.

"I was jealous that he was the person that you would trust more than me. The person that you would spend almost every minute with. The person that made you laugh. The person that was always there for you. I wanted to be that person but I failed to realize that I was too late after the things I did back on Cybertron" he felt a tear slide down his ashen face plates.

"You know, none of this would have happened if you hadn't joined the Decepticons" she said softly although he could tell it was a low quip.

"I know, my spark. And if I could then I would take everything back and correct it, but I can't..."

"Starscream-"

"Please, Arcee. Forgive me" He begged as he pressed his forehelm to hers, both of them closed their optics and indulged in the closeness of their sparks becoming close yet again.

"... I need your help with something," she carried on with what she originally came here and Starscream let out a breath sadly as he didn't get a reply to his request.

"Anything, sweet spark,"

"After a recent situation with the Decepticons... I... I felt... pain, coming from our sparklings and it made me pass out. I dreamt about the time when they were just beginning to move their wings and beginning their sparkling babble" she smiled at the memory "But it was strange, because the bond with our sparklings hasn't been active for years, we thought they were dead and then the next thing you know the bond told me that they were close."

Starscream stared at her, his mouth slightly open and his optics wide with shock.

"I have been experiencing the same thing, my spark. Apart from I dreamt of when our sparklings were only about an stellar-cycle old when Bluewing had figured out she could make loud noises and I thought she would wake you all up. It turned out all of you were awake apart from Northstar so Skystorm decided to wake him up," he chuckled at the fond memory, "...This was actually one of the reasons I needed to speak to you. I was going to investigate by myself at first just in case it turned out to be a strange false alarm, I didn't want to upset you if I told you and I was completely wrong. But now I am sure that I can feel our sparklings, all three of them."

"We have to find them, Starscream" she almost begged.

"I know and we will" he said quietly as he leaned in to kiss lips pressed against hers and he felt a wave of relief when she didn't pull away.

This encouraged him to take this a bit further and he slid his glossa along her lips, asking for entrance. She opened her mouth and allowed his glossa to become tangled with hers as they explored each others mouths once again. As they tasted each other once lifted a servo and began rubbing soothing circles on his sensitive wings making them twitch. This made him moan and she smiled into the kiss as she watched him wriggle slightly under the treatment. Starscream was quick to move one of his servos further down and started to stroke softly yet teasingly at her thighs. She gasped with a mix of shock and slowly pulled her down to the ground with him and he began kissing her up and down her body sending ripples of pleasure up her frame.

"Why don't you contact your team and tell them not to bother us for a while" he almost whispered as he continued sucking on her thighs.

**::Arcee to base, do you copy?::**

**::Yes, Arcee. Do you need a ground bridge?::** Optimus replied.

**::No actually. I was just calling to say that I need some alone time. Starscream has gone and I just want to get a bit of fresh air while I think about some things before I return to base.::** Arcee told her leader hoping he would buy it.

**::Contact us when you need a bridge.::**

Arcee could hear the understanding in Optimus' voice and felt slightly guilty.

**::Thank you, Optimus. Arcee out.::**

she ended the comm link and turned back to her sparkmate who was currently dragging his slick glossa across her groin panel and made her could feel herself warming up and becoming wet with lubricant as Starscream continued to pleasure her. Starscream smirked as he watched her writhe underneath his touch and felt his groin plating become very uncomfortable. He suddenly felt something tugging at his red chevron and looked up to see it was Arcee motioning for him to come back up and be face to face with her.

He did as she wanted and they both shared a passionate kiss as he undid both of their groin plating. He crawled on top of her, supporting his weight on his arms that were on either side of her helm and looked at her with an expression that requested permission and smiled softly when she nodded. He felt the excitement burning within him and kissed her gently as he smoothly thrusted his hips into hers, moaning as the warmth surrounded him. It only made him want to pleasure her even more when he heard her moan as she felt him within her.

Hours of moaning, groaning and overloads sped by and eventually they were both lying next to each other absolutely spent.

They watched the sun go down as it stained the sky with light streaks and shades of orange and pink as the comfortable silence enveloped them. It was beautiful. Everything was perfect. Well, not totally prefect but the moment they had just shared was a reminder of how much they loved each other and need one another to keep them going.

They both clipped their groin plating back on and wiped as much lubricant off of them as they could before they shared another kiss.

"You said you came here for two reasons. You explained that the first was the same as my intention but you failed to explain your second one," Arcee said to him tiredly as she felt his spark beat against her own.

"I wanted you to forgive me," he replied sounding just as tired.

"I still hate you for what you did, Star."

"I know," he smiled watched as his beloved sparkmate fell into recharge in his arms with her head pressed underneath his chin, their sparks beating in sync.

Their love had not been restored but in time it would be. The grey and red seeker just hoped that he could fix it in time, show his sweetspark that he was truly sorry and work with her to find their sparklings that had mysteriously popped up somewhere. Somewhere that was yet to be discovered

...

Autobot base

...

"Optimus, please be calm. You know that Arcee is probably upset about her sparklings after her dream brought back memories of them" Ratchet tried to reassure his worried leader.

"I know but I cannot help but worry. It has been hours, she has not contacted base since she asked to be left alone and we do not know what happened between her and Starscream" Optimus sighed.

"I'm sure she is fine. She _is _one of your toughest warriors"

Optimus stopped his worrying and smiled slightly. Yes, she was tough and could definitely look after herself. That was one of the many things he liked about her. However, he still couldn't understand what Starscream wanted with her.

"Ratchet, fire up the ground bridge" he ordered.

"Optimus, are you sure? She did ask to be alone."

"I must know that she is safe"

"Why are you trying to keep her close to you?" Ratchet questioned with his optics squinted.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You want to keep her close to you, like a human would do with one of their pet dog things"

"I like to keep all of Team Prime safe, Ratchet. Fire up the ground bridge" Optimus was beginning to get annoyed.

"You have feelings for her" Ratchet looked his leader.

That caught Optimus off guard and he froze for a minute before replying.

"I have feelings for every member of this team whether they are Cybertronian or Human" he growled.

"You know if she has... _had_ sparklings then there is the possibility that she might already have a sparkmate" Ratchet pointed out, testing his leader to the max.

"Ratchet, fire up the ground bridge. That is an order!" Optimus raised his voice to the medic, surprising himself and Ratchet.

"Yes, Prime" he murmured as he pulled down the lever that allowed the ground bridge to swirl into spared Ratchet one last glance before he turned and walked through the ground bridge to the location where Starscream had met with Arcee.

His optics widened at the sight that lay ahead of him...

There was Arcee recharging soundly...

In the arms of Starscream who had curled himself around her slightly in his recharge. He felt the realization hit him over the helm...Starscream is the sire of her sparklings. Starscream is her slowly walked over to the recharging sparkmates and gently shook Arcee to try and rouse her from her sleep. She woke up slowly but surely and her optics widened in shock when they focused on Optimus.

"Optimus! What are you doing here?!" she exclaimed loud enough that it woke up stood up, not wanting to be lying on the ground as she spoke to her leader.

"Ugh, what is it sweet spark?" he questioned but no longer expected a reply when he saw a wide opticed Optimus Prime staring at him.

He too quickly jumped up to his pedes next to his sparkmate.

"Optimus, I can explain" Arcee quickly Prime turned his attention to her.

"Why didn't you just tell me, Arcee?" he rumbled.

"B-because... I don't know. It's difficult, I suppose..." she trailed off.

"I understand it is a difficult situation but you could have at least informed myself or Ratchet about this"

"Okay... Optimus, that little dream I had that allowed you and Ratchet to find out about my sparklings, well, when Starscream contacted base I wanted to speak to him about our sparklings. I may not like him very much-"

"Hey!"

"But as the father of my sparklings I thought it was only fair to talk to him about this"

"I can relate to her explanation as well. I contacted your base because I wanted to speak to Arcee about our sparklings because I have had a similar situation with the whole dream sequence" Starscream thought it would be wise to place his word into this conversation especially if it was one that involved him massively.

"I see..." Optimus looked like he was in deep thought, "Starscream, you may come back to base with Arcee. I have already offered Arcee my help and if you are her sparklings' sire then I will help the both of you. I will assist you in finding your sparklings and bringing them back to you, however, I also have to focus on getting our human allies back from Megatron"

"Megatron has your pets?" Starscream punched him on the arm.

"They are not our pets, Starscream. They are our friends... Family"

"I would help, but I would like to focus my attention on finding my sparklings" he informed the two Autobots.

"As long as you do not disrupt the process of finding our human friends then we accept" Optimus' bright blue optics gazed into Starscream's deep red ones, quietly threatening him.

**/Ratchet, I need a ground bridge. Starscream is going to be joining us for the time being so be alert but do not engage./**

The Autobot ground bridge burst to life and Arcee and Starscream, followed by Optimus walked into turned to the three of them as they stepped through the ground bridge with an expression that demanded answers.

"Ratchet, I will allow Arcee and Starscream to explain things to you. I'm going to go and have a word with Bumblebee" Optimus said as he left the med bay and headed on his way to Bumblebee's personal three watched him leave before they all swiveled back around to each other.

"Well?" Ratchet asked showing clearly that he was becoming made Starscream move around in discomfort, he was in an unfamiliar base and knew he was disliked by all of them here.

"Okay, long story short. Starscream is my sparkmate and also the sire of my sparklings that we were talking about earlier. We have both been sensing the sparklings, having dreams about them and feeling them through the spark bond that we thought no longer existed" Arcee explained to the old medic with a hand clutched to her head in annoyance.

"I knew it..."

"What?" Arcee and Starscream both asked.

"Oh, nothing" Ratchet covered up knowing that it would deeply embarrass Optimus, "Did you say you could feel your sparklings through the spark bond?"

"Yes, why?" Starscream Ratchet wasn't keen on the idea of allowing Starscream into the base and helping him, he still helped because he knew how much it would mean to Arcee.

He knew how much she wanted her sparklings back with her and what sort of person would he be if he said he wouldn't help her just because of her sparkmate. He couldn't even class himself as a friend let alone a family member.

"Have either of you heard of 'Spark Searching'?" he finally asked.

"Well not until now but I can take a guess about what it is" Arcee replied.

"But we don't know how to do it" Starscream added.

"Okay, all you both need to do is go back to Arcee's quarters where it is quiet. I will make sure no one disturbs you so you don't have to worry about that. You need to focus on your sparks and stretch them until you can feel the steady pulse of your sparklings' sparks. As their parents you will automatically know when you stumble across them. You must keep pulling at it, the more you pull the more they will realize that you are there and they may start trying to head in the direction of the pulling. When you feel the pull or even emotions come from your sparklings you will start to get an idea of where the spark bond leads and you will be able to follow it"

"Sounds like the only option we have" Arcee mumbled.

"Are you sure it will work?" Starscream asked, he was worried. He wanted to find his sparklings and bring them back to him and his sparkmate.

"In most cases where someone has gone missing this solution has been successful, so I would strongly recommend it. Now go, you do want to find them don't you?" he shooed them out of his med bay and towards Arcee's room.

They reached Arcee's quarters and sat down on her berth together.

"Ready?" he asked her.

"Ready." she both began to locate their sparklings' pulses and tugged when they found was only until now that Arcee realized she was tied between two important situations.

Her sparklings and Jack.

...

The Nemesis

...

Jack, Miko and Raf woke up at the exact same time. They could feel a weird tugging sensation in their chests and it was beginning to irritate them to no end. They may have been sleeping on a giant, robotic, alien warlord but they like sleep. Who doesn't?

"This tugging won't go away!" Jack snarled quietly so he didn't wake Megatron.

"You feel it too?" Raf asked.

"All three of us can feel it!" Miko gasped.

"Guys, this is weird. Are you sure you guys aren't just messing with my head?" Jack was beginning to get worried.

"No, Jack. We actually feel it" Miko replied making sure to show her two best friends that she was clearly not lying.

"Well, we know that it's not hurting us so that's a good sign" Raf pointed out.

"Yeah, it's just annoying. That's all" the oldest child tried to calm himself.

"Why don't we go do something to take our minds off it?" Miko asked excitedly.

"Miko, if you haven't noticed we are inside Megatron's quarters and the door is most probably locked or it is too big for us to even think about unlocking it. And also, what would we do on an alien warship?" Jack demanded.

"Dude, we escaped through the vents last time."

"Attempted to escape." Raf corrected her.

"Yeah whatever, my point is that we can get out of this room using the vent."

"And then what?" asked Jack whilst Miko smirked.

"Oh, I have something in mind."

Jack didn't like the sound of this...

...

Some part of the warship Miko had managed to find

...

After climbing through vents, arguing with each other and then tricking some drones into believing Megatron had ordered them to give them a ride, Miko had successfully led her two friends out onto the flight deck with three drones keeping them company.

"Okay, drones, are you ready to take flight?!" Miko exclaimed reply, "Then let's go!" she said just as excited as before.

"Miko, I'm not sure about this" Raf said anxiously.

"Come on, Raf. It'll be fun" Jack encouraged his younger nodded to his older friends and watched as the drones transformed into their jet modes and opened their cockpits allowing the mischievous children to climb no time they were flying around the Nemesis in their drones.

Racing, playing tag, bumper cars or 'Bumper Vehicons' as it was now called. It was the most fun they'd ever had!

The best part was that the drones believed that Megatron had given them an order to entertain the kids. In reality Megatron was still recharging and hadn't even noticed that the three young humans were no longer in his personal quarters.

...

Autobot Base

...

Starscream and Arcee smiled when they felt the happiness and mischievousness that leaked through the bond. They were happy that they could feel their sparklings a bit stronger now. But most of all they were happy that their sparklings were happy. The two parents didn't want to feel any negative emotion come from their sparklings. It would only upset them because they knew that they would be unable to received a comm from Ratchet that went to everyone apart from Starscream.

Bulkhead had been called back from patrol, Optimus and Bumblebee had been called halfway through a discussion that Arcee guessed had been a pretty heated a matter of minutes, her and her sparkmate and the rest of Team Prime including June and Agent Fowler were all in the main room.

Optimus announced to all of them that they needed to hear the full story of what Jack, Miko and Raf had been previously involved in from Agent two human adults looked unsure when they saw Starscream but didn't say anything. They cared much more about the safety of the children. They looked to Bumblebee and saw that he had a slight look of confusion laced into his optics, he saw the humans looking at him and he shrugged his shoulders. He also wanted to know what the winged Decepticon was doing here.

"Wait, wait, wait. What the hell is that damn 'Con doing here?!" Bulkhead shouted angrily, his hands transforming into wrecking balls. Bumblebee warbled in agreement and brought out his cannons.

"Expanations will come later. Right now we must focus on our young allies." Optimus said not just to Bulkhead and Bumblebee but to all the puzzled faces in the all looked unsure and slightly angry that Optimus was just ignoring the fact that a Deception, former or not, was in their base.

However, their worry of their charges took control of them and eventually everyone nodded in acceptance and the government agent began telling his story yet again and got replies made of curses and pure disgust. Even Starscream had made a few comments about how vile it was.

One thing that did catch everyone's attention was that the children had streaks of silver on them. June hadn't mentioned that so it caught everyone by surprise when they were told this and the fact that they were supposedly found in a different Fowler had just finished retelling the past of Jack, Miko and Raf and telling Starscream about how he couldn't mention the adoption situation when the life signal alarm went off.

"It appears that Jack, Miko and Raf are outside of the Nemesis and airborne" Ratchet told them all.

"What are they doing airborne?" Arcee questioned.

"Who cares?! Now would be one of our best opportunities to try and get them back" Bulkhead pounded his fists.

Starscream shot Bulkhead a glare for speaking to his sparkmate like that but he ceased when he heard his name.

"Starscream, you will stay here with Ratchet," the Autobot leader knew that Starscream wouldn't do anything illogical if he wanted their help, "Autobots! Transformand roll out!" Optimus ordered as the ground bridge roared to life. Arcee, Bumblebee, Bulkhead and then Optimus all raced through the ground bridge towards their young charges, their minds set on bringing them home.


	6. Chapter 6

"Megatron was stirred from his peaceful slumber when he felt mischief coming through his supposed sparklings bonds with him. He could feel no weight on his chest. He looked down and growled when he saw that they were no longer where they were meant to be. Why couldn't these children just relax, he wasn't going to hurt them especially if they were his sparklings?! But he would punish them for their disobedience. Just like a Sire should to his children. Yes, he was going to be a no nonsense father and punish the cheeky sparklings for leaving without permission.

With an agitated growl Megatron got up from his berth and left his quarters to find his mischievous sparklings. He decided the easiest way to find them would be to follow the bond and it lead him outside to the flight deck where he found three vehicons flying around. The tyrant could feel they were close but he couldn't help but look at the flying vehicons in confusion as they flew around in a weird pattern...

Then he saw his sparklings. Laughing away as they were sat inside the vehicons' jet modes. How on Cybertron did they manage this?!/

Megatron couldn't help but chuckle at the intelligence the kids showed but decided it was time to retrieve them. It was early in the morning after all and he didn't want to be dealing with grumpy sparklings later on.

He froze as he saw a few blue energon shots hit the vehicons and gazed down from the flight deck to see Optimus Prime, Bulkhead, Arcee and Bumblebee opening fire on the vehicons.

The Decepticon Leader growled as he commed the vehicons to turn around and head back inside. As they turned to follow his command he saw his shaken sparklings look at him with wide eyes. He walked away as they were taken inside the ship by the vehicons. He'd deal with them later but it now he had pests that needed to be obliterated.

He commed Dreadwing and told him to assist him in battle along with some drones as he jumped off the side of the warship and transformed into his Cybertronian jet. Soon enough a blue and gold-streaked jet had joined his side and the sound of multiple vehicon weapons being fired had reached his audios.

They all transformed. Dreadwing began firing on the Autobots but left Optimus to his master. Megatron had already reached Optimus and had engaged him with his sword. Soon enough the lot of them were lost to the heated burn of battle.

...

Autobot Base

...

Everyone found it a bit awkward with the seeker in their base. Especially Agent Fowler and Ratchet due to their past encounters. Everyone remained quiet until...

"Damn it to the pits!"

Nobody had ever heard Ratchet curse like that.

"What is it?" Starscream asked, he hoped it was nothing involving his mate.

"The children are no longer outside! They are back inside and protected by shielding. They are back on the Nemesis" the old medic sighed.

"Are you sure, Ratchet?" June asked with tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.

"June, I'm sorry" Fowler tried to comfort her.

Starscream was watching all of this, he really couldn't believe the amount of love the Autobots had for those puny human children!

"Perhaps I could help with that" Starscream intervened with a slight cough.

"And how are you gonna do that?" Fowler glared at him.

Starscream ignored the glare and carried on.

"I believe I may know a way of getting onto the warship"

...

Optimus dodged the silver fist that was seconds away from colliding with his face plate. He then threw himself onto Megatron and tackled him to the ground and preparing to finish him. But Megatron was a gladiator, he had reflexes quicker than most of the Cybertronian race and could still fight with flaming brutality.

Megatron threw Optimus off of him before jumping to his pedes and slashing Optimus across the chest with his blade. The Autobot leader groaned from the pain and attempted to get a hit at Megatron but missed. The pain had clouded his thoughts and he felt like he couldn't do anything properly.

The silver tyrant had Optimus pinned to the ground and charged his fusion canon. He was ready to finish the last Prime for good. He raised his sword and was about to bring it down when Optimus brought out his own sword, jumped back up and kicked Megatron in the faceplate sending him flying back.

Megatron growled and charged at his enemy. Optimus did the same.

They smashed into each other, the sound of metal crunching because of the force could be heard. But the two leaders didn't care. All they did care about was who got those children.

...

"Stand down, Starscream!"

"What's your malfunction? Don't you know I am your superior?!" Starscream shouted at the two eradicons in front of him.

"I'm sorry, Commander Starscream, but Lord Megatron ordered that if you were found you are to be taken prisoner"

"Is that so?" He asked strangely calm.

Before the eradicons could find words to bring to their vocal processors Starscream had stuck his claws through both of their sparks.

"Now. Time to find those human brats..." The seeker grumbled as he stepped over the empty shells of the eradicons, "Hopefully Arcee will forgive me in some way if I manage to do this"

He began searching through the halls, into different rooms and even in little holes. He was having no such luck finding them and he was starting to get a bit paranoid.

The winged ex-Decepticon didn't want to come into contact with a certain communications chief. If he did he would fail his objective and Arcee wouldn't even think about half forgiving him.

With that in mind he started looking harder and faster until he felt the slightest little tugs at his spark.

Starscream's optics widened. His sparklings. His sparklings were close. On the ship? They couldn't be. Only one way to find out.

Starscream headed in the opposite direction of where he was originally headed and followed his children's bond. He walked through tons of corridors to the point he thought that he had gotten lost in a place he had once called home. He shook of the feeling and carried on pacing the way the bond lead him. The jet-former was confused when he reached the door of a hangar. The main hangar to be exact. The one where vehicons would come back from the battle or their duty.

Starscream knew it was risky but he knew that his sparklings were behind that door. He had to reach them. He had to get them!

"He transformed both arms into guns and kicked the door open with a force nobody would've expected from the seeker. He stormed in and pointed his guns at the three vehicons in the hangar.

The vehicons charged one of their hands into guns and it was only then that Starscream noticed the children in the other hands.

"Hand them over" he demanded.

"We don't take orders from you, Starscream" one of the vehicons replied rather gruffly.

"Starscream?! What are you doing here?!" The kids yelled.

"I'm saving you annoying little pests" he rolled his optics but quickly regained sight on the vehicons.

"Why?!" Jack almost squeaked.

"Stop questioning me and trust me!"

"Why should we trust you?!" Miko intervened.

With that, Starscream shot down the vehicons at lighting speed and grabbed the human children before they could fall. The children looked up at him completely gobsmacked as he held them in his hand.

"That's why" he said as he looked around the room.

"Uhhh... Starscream? What are you looking for?" Raf asked shyly.

"Nothing of your concern, fleshling" Starscream's tone was softer. He didn't intend it to be, it just happened. Like he was meant to be like that with this human. Maybe it was because he was obviously scared whereas his friends were a lot more confident.

The red and silver seeker stopped his searching after he had spoken to Raf. What was he looking for?

The sparkling bond had ended in this room. It had ended on the humans in his hands.

His optics gazed down on them before he sighed. It wasn't possible, there was no way that these were his sparklings!

It's probably just their friendship with the Autobots he thought sadly. The poor seeker had been excited, he had almost found his children but instead he had found these three humans. Well, at least Arcee would be happier. With that thought in mind he decided it was probably a wise choice to leave.

With the children carefully held in his hands he was about to call Ratchet for a ground bridge. Then he realised that the ship was currently moving and they'd left the original area of coordinates. Without Starscream operating the controls there was no way a ground bridge could be sent to his location.

"Aah how foolish of me!" He smacked himself in the helm with his free hand.

The kids looked at him with puzzled expressions but said nothing.

Another problem was that Starscream didn't know the coordinates of the Autobot base so he couldn't bridge himself back. Even if he did have the coordinates Soundwave would most likely track him and quickly save the coordinates.

'FRAG' came to the seeker's mind.

Maybe Ratchet could get a lock on his coordinates but the Nemesis would surely be blocking that. Starscream concluded that the only way he would be able to get out of here alive with the children would be to jump. Without a t-cog, Starscream would just have to pray that Ratchet opened a bridge fast enough.

He opened the door that lead outside and ran to the edge.

"Uhh, Starscream?" Jack shivered as the other two huddled against him.

"Trust me" was the only thing the seeker said as he pulled them up to his chest to rest against his warm spark.

He got the comm link ready and jumped. The kids screamed and he found it painful to listen to their cries of fear. He held them closer to his spark and almost began nose diving when he felt that familiar presence. He didn't know exactly why but it just felt right having these children against his chest as he protected them as best he could.

"Ratchet! Come in, Ratchet!" Starscream almost screamed.

"Starscream, your life signal and the children's are airborne and approaching the ground quickly. What is going on up there?!"

"I am currently free falling off of the Nemesis and I need a bridge pretty soon! Preferably beneath me!" The seeker bit his lip.

"Im locking on!"

Starscream only hoped that the ground bridge would appear in the right place. He didn't want to die! He didn't want to die knowing he'd leave his sparkmate alone in their mission to find their sparklings!

He looked down at the children against his chest and didn't know what to think when he realised they were curled against him exactly like how his sparklings would when they were scared.

He tightened his grip on them and awaited the appearance of the ground bridge as he plummeted closer and closer to the ground.

...

"Optimus we have a situation" Ratchet's voice came over his comm link.

"Proceed, old friend"

"Starscream has the children and they are currently free falling from the Nemesis. As Starcream is unable to take flight due to his stolen t-cog I am currently tracing further coordinates to get him through a bridge. I need you to make sure Megatron is completely oblivious to what is happening"

"Understood" Optimus said as he launched himself onto Megatron.

Megatron kicked Optimus off of him and charged his canon preparing to fire until the Autbot Leader sliced him with his sword. Megatron summoned his own sword and met Optimus' with a clash. Megatron being an ex gladiator managed to flip Optimus off his feet after a while. He pinned the red and blue mech to the floor and began punching him multiple times with his taloned hands that were now curled into fists. Optimus lifted his canon on hit Megatron in his spiked shoulder sending him flying back and onto the floor.

He was just gaining his senses when he opens his optics to see Starcream plummeting towards the ground. And he was holding something protectively. No, someone. His sparklings!

Megatron snarled at the thought of Starscream even daring to touch what he created but it soon turned into a chuckle as he stood from the ground and faced the Prime.

"If you think you can fool me then you really are a fool, Optimus" he smirked before transforming and flying towards Starscream.

"Rachet! Megatron is flying towards Starscream and the children! You need to open the bridge now!" Optimus commed the medic, worry straining his processor.

"Opening the bridge... Now!"

The bridge opened and Starscream mentally whooped, thank Primus he didn't do it out loud because he would've looked like an imbecile. A massive weight had pushed him and the children out of the way of the Autobot ground bridge and back to facing the ground that was ready to welcome him with open arms.

"Scrap!" Starscream cursed as he began panicking.

"Starscream! What happened?!" Ratchet sounded like he was beginning to lose a few bolts in his processor.

The poor seeker didn't get a chance to answer when he heard Megatron shout at him about swearing in front of... His sparklings?

"Soundwave, open a ground bridge" was the most audible thing and it made the jet's optics widen. Uh oh.

…..

Optimus watched as Dreadwing transformed and flew towards Megatron as another bridge appeared and Starscream along with the children tumbled through it. He could hear Megatron's booming victorious laughter.

The children were in his reach and he just couldn't get to them on time. They were like his own sparklings, he looked out for them, partially looked after them and tried to help them choose wise paths to go down. He failed them, the Autobots, June, Agent Fowler and... Arcee.

Her sparkmate had gone through the bridge and back to the Decepticons. Although he would never admit it, the leader of the Autobots was quite happy that Starscream was gone for now. Those happy feelings quickly deflated when he realised that whether Starscream was with them or not it would make no difference in his relationship with Arcee. They would he friends at the most and nothing more to his disappointment.

He was shaken from his thoughts when he got a comm from Ratchet.

"Optimus! The children and Starscream made it back!" Ratchet sounded overjoyed, who knew the old medic liked the children that much?

"But I saw them as they went through the Decepticon ground bridge" Optimus gasped not believing what he heard.

"No, when I realised something was wrong I relocated the ground bridge as quickly as possible and here they are"

"Are you certain-"

Optimus was cut off by the Decepticon Leader's cry of rage followed by multiple blasts aimed right at him.

"Ratchet open the ground bridge" he commanded.

The swirling green vortex opened and Optimus commanded all the Autobots and told them to fall back.

They all walked into base and Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Arcee were almost squealing in delight when they saw their young charges being checked over by Ratchet.

Starscream watched them all and smiled slightly, who knew that they could have formed bonds with these life forms. Oh well, he was happy to see his sparkmate happy. He was unsure what she would think of his new theory though.

According to his spark, his sparklings were currently in the base. Back when he was saving the children it was as if his spark recognised them and he found himself actually wanting to protect them as best he could.

What if when he and Arcee had sent then away they had managed to take new forms. After all, when the back stories of the children had been explained by the human agent it was said that the children were found by themselves covered in silver streaks.

There was only one way to test his theory.

Starscream watched the children as he sent waves of comfort and warmth through the bond to his sparklings. He managed to stop himself from crying out in surprise when they all relaxed at exactly the same time. Everything about them looked relaxed.

He sent waves of warmth to them and watched as they settled down even more as Ratchet continued to check them over.

Well, they were relaxed with the warmth that engulfed them until it was apparently too warm for one of them.

"Dude, it's too hot! Could you adjust the temperature thingy?!" Miko demanded and the Autobots laughed and commented on how they missed her fog horn of a mouth.

Starscream chuckled quietly. His little femme was still loud apparently.

The seeker looked at the three children and no longer saw repulsive lesser beings.

He looked at the oldest boy and instantly recognised those dark stormy blue eyes. His eyes were part of the reason he was originally called SkyStorm.

He then turned his attention to the younger one and could practically smell how sensitive he was. That was definitely his youngest.

By now the guardians and human adults had already begun fussing over their charges and could help but smile when the "humans" snuggled into their guardians' armour. He watched as Arcee clutched their oldest child to her chest, he could tell by her body language that she could sense the same thing he did. He would speak to her when they got back to her room.

"Uh, Starscream?"

Starscream looked up at his youngest sparkling and smiled in a way nobody had ever seen him do before. Well, apart from Arcee.

"Yes, little one?" He said in the calmest voice any Autobot had heard.

"Thank you for saving us, you can probably guess it means a lot to us" the youngest thanked him as him and his friends were placed into Starscream's arms and they hugged him as best they could.

All the Autobots were prepared for the ex-Decepticon's actions and they were all shocked at what he did next.

He pulled them to his chest and hugged them like he never wanted to let the three go. Arcee smiled as she watched the sight and waked up to her mate and began stroking one of his wings lightly.

"Arcee, I need to speak to you"

"Go ahead" she nodded to him.

"In private" the seeker replied.

After a few more words exchanged, Starscream put the children down on the platform to be with the human adults. He took one last look as they all hugged before following Arcee out of the main room.

"So does this mean we can trust 'Screamer?" Bulkhead asked the rest in the room.

"It seems Starscream has changed in a very short amount of time. We will still be cautious but after his brave actions today I believe he deserves the respect that any of us would want" the Prime replied and everyone agreed.

…..

"Arcee, the sparklings..."

"I can feel them, they're close" she replied.

"What I'm about to tell you might sound a bit absurd but you have to listen otherwise you might be indirectly pushing away our sparklings" he said softly as he held her.

"Go ahead" she said as she rested her head against his chest and felt him prop his head up on her helm.

"I think the bond ends at the human children…" he stated.

"I'm not the only one then." she sighed in what sounded like shock and relief.

"How?" He asked.

"I realised when I felt the bond nearby as if it were in the base and when I sent waves to them they responded and Miko got driven a bit mad from the heat. You weren't sending warmth too were you?" She chuckled.

"Uh, maybe. She probably found the heat overwhelming" he sighed with a content smile.

"Star," she said as she found his lips with hers, "We found them." tears were now forming in her optics.

"I don't mean to destroy the moment, but please, Arcee… Don't get your hopes up." he kissed her gently.

She pulled away when something popped to her processor.

"I wonder why we didn't feel anything from them before, I mean they've been in base for quite a while now."

"I don't know but we have them now. Things will be fine if Megatron stays away from them." he growled the last bit.

"He won't be able to get to them again." she stated boldly.

"No, it's not that. When I was diving towards the ground bridge I heard him call them his sparklings." he growled as his optics flashed.

"What? I think you've just been hearing things, Starscream." she sighed.

"Maybe... I do have a lot on my processor regarding sparklings anyway, I suppose." He replied with a sigh of his own.

"Look, we have them back and we will tell them soon. We just need to wait for the right moment." she beamed up at him.

He smiled back before possessively attacking her lips with his as he slowly lowered her onto the berth. He leaned over her as he felt his crotch plating suddenly become uncomfortable. He began nipping and kissing at her plating and soon enough they were riding out waves of pleasure together.

They were happy. A trace of their sparklings had just become clear to them, and although they weren't sure what to believe, it was certainly a large leap.

…..

The Nemesis

…..

Megatron hadn't said a word to anyone and had retreated to his private quarters.

He could only pace, curse Starscream and think about how he had just let possibly the only things left of his sparkmate get away.

KnockOut had commed his leader to tell him that the machine was finally ready but he only got screamed at for being too late. Apparently that was the wrong time to tell his leader..

The silver warlord could do nothing but think about what would've happened if those sparklings were his. He was sure they were. He would get them back no matter what the cost. He swore he would get revenge on that seeker and take back what was rightfully his.


	7. Chapter 7

"Starscream, I usually wouldn't approve of actions as foolish as your own" Optimus looked down at the seeker, "But your actions brought us back our friends... Vital parts of our family. And we will never be able to thank you enough" he gave him a small smile.

Starscream looked up at the Prime and then around the room at the faces of Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Ratchet, June, Agent Fowler, Arcee... And his sparklings.

He smiled before looking back to the large mech stood before him.

"I think enough thanks would be allowing me a place in the Autobot ranks and allowing me to stay with my sparkmate" he told Optimus. In his mind he was also saying 'I want to be here with my sparklings' but knew it would be a bit strange if he said it aloud.

"I think we can-"

"Look, Starscream we are all very thankful but-" Bumblebee interrupted Optimus.

"We'd love to-" Arcee interrupted Bumblebee.

"I think we need to perform a few trust exerc-" Bulkhead interrupted Arcee.

"BE QUIET" Ratchet boomed and everyone shut up, "carry on, Optimus"

Optimus chuckled slightly before he turned to his team and the seeker, "I'm sure the team will be very welcoming" he held his hand out to Starscream.

Starscream beamed as he shook Optimus' servo in agreement, sealing their alliance. However the seeker knew he was still unwanted by some members of the team.

"Thank you, Optimus"

The Prime nodded before reminding his team that they had things to do and went back to work himself.

Starscream turned to Arcee and saw she had their sparklings in her arms and smiled when he saw they were smiling up at her and chatting away.

Starscream walked over to Arcee and brushed a finger over the three children. They all jumped and turned to look at the new Autobot.

"Hey, Starscream!" Miko smiled widely.

"Hello, Miko" he chuckled, "Still loud are we?" Arcee laughed at that remembering those times well and Miko playfully scowled at him.

"We're happy you're an Autobot now, we didn't want you to have to leave" Raf told the seeker.

"Yeah, we didn't want to see Team Prime kick you out straight after" Jack added.

"I'm glad you appreciate my help" he smiled at them.

"Okay, you guys go play" Arcee lowered them to the floor.

"Really?" Miko raised an eyebrow with an unbelieving look.

"What?" The femme questioned.

"Play?" Jack dead panned.

Starscream chuckled as he watched them. Clearly Arcee was having trouble getting over that by human terms they were younglings not sparklings.

"Well go do whatever you do" she playfully scolded.

The trio laughed before they walked over to their area. Jack and Miko began wrestling over what video game to play and Raf pulled out his laptop and occasionally glanced up and laughed at his older friends.

"Doesn't that remind you of when they were younger?" Starscream whispered to his sparkmate as they watched their human trine interact.

"Yeah, and it makes me want them to be back in their original bodies even more" she sighed.

"I would love that too but I love them regardless of how they are" he said softly as he kissed her lips lightly.

"Who knew you would keep your word, Starscream" Arcee chuckled against his lips.

"What?" He asked confused by her statement.

"When we discussed the children and somehow went from me shouting at you to letting you frag me. You told me you would change and you did" she licked his lips and he growled suggestively.

"I would do anything for you" the seeker responded to her tongue against his lips by dragging his claws lightly over he interface panel.

"Starscream"

"Hmm?"

"Not in front of the sparklings" she smirked.

"I will get you later, I can promise you that" he smirked back at her.

"Sure you can" she teased "But right now I have to go on patrol" she walked away from him, transformed and was ready to leave when-

"Arcee! Can I come with?" Jack asked from his place on the couch where he had been playing a game with Miko.

"Jack, you just got back and preferably I don't want to be trying to retrieve you from Megatron ever again" she said sternly.

"Fair point" Jack turned back to his game with Miko.

"He will never hurt any of you again"

"Arcee, guess what?!" Miko shouted to her.

"What is it?"

"Megatron didn't actually hurt us" the young girl sounded confused.

Arcee transformed and Starscream internally growled. He had an idea why that slagger hadn't harmed them. Not that he wanted them harmed but he didn't want that brute anywhere near his children.

"He didn't?" Starscream asked covering for Arcee who had the words stuck in her vocal processor.

"No, well once but he came back almost instantly and was apologising saying he was only worried for our safety so overall he was just really protective" Miko shrugged her shoulders.

Arcee could see Starscream's hands shaking in rage and she placed her own hand over one of his to show her support.

"We'll keep this between the five of us" Arcee said.

"Why?" Raf was baffled by this.

"Because Optimus won't be able to do anything about it anyway" she said as calmly as she could.

Raf nodded in agreement and looked back down at his laptop continuing what he was doing.

Jack and Miko had already continued their game and it was clear to see that all three children were paying completely no attention to their surroundings so Arcee decided to turn to Starscream.

"We'll speak about this later" she kissed his cheek before transforming and racing off to patrol the area, leaving Starscream sitting on a crate watching his children protectively and wondering what it would've been like if they had grown up as Cybertronians.

Well technically they would still be sparklings, very young sparklings as human lives were a nibble of a bite compared to Cybertronian life spans. It did make him worry about their short amount of time if they were to remain human but he pushed that thought aside as he watched them act as children should.

Starscream had stored one thing in his mind already. Should Megatron ever even look at his sparklings he would kill the ex gladiator. He was not going to allow the spiteful warlord to take them from him. He would take great pleasure in killing him if he were to even attempt.

/-\

To say Megatron was upset was an understatement, he was beyond furious and Soundwave was giving it his all to try and console his distraught leader.

Vehicons were thrown and curse words echoed in the main room as Megatron continued in his rage rant about sneaky treacherous seekers.

Finally the old mech had retreated back to his quarters where he decided he would tear the walls apart as he had run out of vehicons to throw in the main room. The room looked like a storm had gone through it by the time Megatron was finished with it and the mech still vibrated with anger.

He slammed himself onto his berth, still angry but tired from the amount of effort that had been lost to the destruction of his room. He glanced down at his broad chest where his sparklings should have been, he couldn't believe he had allowed the only things left of his mate to get away so easily!

Then he realised who they had gotten away with, they hadn't gone with the Autobots. They had gone with Starscream but the ground bridge didn't make sense. Maybe the slagging seeker had found a way of creating one of his own it would only make sense since he was the one who had been directing the creation of the space bridges and space bridge technology had always been extremely complex, therefore a ground bridge would be simple to build for the mech. That was one of the main reasons Megatron wished the seeker hadn't left his ranks. Starscream was intelligent, had great tactical thinking and was the reason for quite a lot of Decepticon victories although Megatron would never admit he acknowledged that to Starscream.

The silver warlord could only hope that Starscream had made an alliance with the Autobots. Although he hoped that if he did that it was a temporary one. He didn't need his ex second in command blurting out all of the Decepticon secrets and warning them of future plans.

What if Starscream had hurt his sparklings? What if Starscream didn't hand his sparklings over to the Autobots and was holding them prisoner?

Starscream had given him a weird almost "what the frag" look when he had shouted at him to stop swearing in front of the children.

What if the little fragger knew about how they were most probably his sparklings and was trying to mess with his head by taking them?!

No! He wouldn't let it happen! He would get his sparklings back!

And he would kill Starscream.

With a growl Megatron commed Soundwave to look for Starcream's energy signature. He didn't need any form of response from his loyal communications chief as he respected his reasons for being silent and knew that the mech would get it done straight away.

He then decided he would pay KnockOut a visit in the med bay to see for himself the machine that had been finished just a tad bit too late.

About seven vehicons were waiting outside when Megatron walked out.

"Lord Megatron, we were told to fix your quarters" one of them said.

"Oh and who said that?" Megatron seethed. Who dared to issue commands without him saying so?!

"Commander Soundwave, sir" the same vehicon replied.

"Well, get on with it then" he ordered them. Maybe he should've thought it would be Soundwave, the mech had earned so much of his trust that he was able to issue commands.

As the vehicons entered his quarters he walked towards the med bay where he would view this machine.

/-\

A few hours had passed and the Autobots had come to a final decisions that the children would be living at the base for a while. Agent a Fowler had contacted Miko and Raf's families with the cover that they were currently being located. The families had already realised that their adopted children had gone missing when June could no longer take it and broke down crying about Jack.

"Where in the base will they stay?" Ratchet asked Optimus.

"With their guardians obviously" Bulkhead said as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"Actually, Bulkhead, I believe it would be best to keep the children together after their experience on Megatron's warship" Optimus placed a hand on the green mech's shoulder.

"Well then they can stay with Starscream and I" Arcee said with a smile "After all, Bulkhead would probably keep them up all night, Bumblebee is still young himself and I doubt Ratchet would want to keep them with him. I also know you have work to complete and the children would only serve as a distraction"

"I don't want Miko staying in the same room as him" Bulkhead almost growled.

"I don't believe I want Raf there either" Bumblebee buzzed but sounded less threatening that Bulkhead.

Starscream internally growled. If only these imbeciles knew that these children were in fact his sparklings.

"Either way Jack would've ended up with Starscream and I and believe me, if Starscream knows what's best for him he won't even look at any of them the wrong way" Arcee flicked her sparkmates wing just to show she wasn't kidding.

"YOWCH! Really, Arcee?" Starscream glared at her as he rubbed his wing "Anyway, I wouldn't dream of hurting them. I can see how close they are to all of you and if I am to join the Autobots then I must allow them at least a chance" he stuck up for Arcee. All of what he said was true but he seriously would say anything just to get his sparklings back.

Before anything else could be said Optimus cut it "Starscream, I do not see you as a threat to the children due to your actions and partly your sparkmate" everyone laughed at that "So I think the children will be fine staying with you and Arcee as Jack most likely would have done so anyway"

"Thank you, Optimus" Arcee smiled at him at which he smiled back.

Starscream couldn't help but think there was something more to that smile but he shrugged it off blaming his thoughts on his over-protectiveness that had recently been kicked into overdrive which he though was mainly his Sire instincts.

As it had been decided Bumblebee and Bulkhead left to their rooms in a huff complaining about trusting the seeker. Ratchet and Optimus also left to do paper work in their rooms and no doubt go to recharge shortly which left the little family in the room with Agent Fowler and June who had stopped by to drop off things that they would need for the duration of their stay at the base.

"Thanks, Mom" Jack smiled as she pulled him into a hug.

Arcee felt her spark twist but ignored it and mentally scolded herself.

"Yeah thanks, Mrs Darby" Miko and Raf added.

She hugged both of them too as if they were her own children.

Arcee's felt a flash of jealousy at the sight and crossed her arms, beginning to get annoyed with the presence of the nurse. But she seemed to be taking her time to leave!

June kept telling the kids that she would be back tomorrow and that they should listen to the bots and brush their teeth and then whispered something into Miko's ear which made Miko blush with a little nervous laugh. She then went onto saying that they must be in bed on time and do this and do that and that she would bring homework for them... Oh Primus she wouldn't stop.

Finally she and Agent Fowler left the base and Starscream was thankful as he could feel his mate becoming agitated and he didn't want to have to deal with it. He knew it was dangerous.

"Come on then. Time for recharge" The femme looked at the three children.

"But we're not tired" they moaned and Starscream couldn't help but laugh at this. This is exactly what they would've gone through every night with their children had they not sent them away.

"What's funny?" Jack asked.

"Oh nothing" he smirked with a chuckle at them.

"It's just you guys are so... Kiddie" Arcee half laughed half cooed at them.

"Come on guys! Why not movie time?" Miko asked giving them puppy eyes. They had to admit she was pretty good at it and soon enough Arcee was suppressing "Awwwwww"s when the other two had joined in and all three looked insanely cute.

"Movie time it is!" Starscream declared and the kids cheered.

"What movie?" Jack asked his two younger friends.

"Forest Gump!" Raf chimed.

"EW. No. Let's watch The Grudge!" Miko grinned.

"Miko, I'm not sure Raf would-"

"Let's watch it!" Raf said interrupting and surprising Jack.

"Um, Raf are you sure?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yep. It'll be new to me" he stated.

"You do know it's a really strange horror film?"

"Yeah but to be honest I've never watched a horror and I really want to!" Raf begged.

"Well, I suppose it's not too scary. It just has a few jump scares" Jack sighed.

"The Grudge it is!" Miko whooped and let her fist fly into the air as a victory punch.

"Miko, if Raf gets scared and anyone finds out I'm going to blame it on you" Arcee dead panned.

"That's fine" she shook it off.

Soon enough the five of them had retreated to Arcee's (now Arcee and Starscream's) room and they had started the film on a telecom.

They were all on the large berth where Raf was becoming scared. Maybe watchin this wasn't the greatest idea ever he thought.

Starscream and Arcee picked up on the fear through the bond and they looked at each other before Starscream picked the youngest child up careful not to scare him.

Starscream thought it would be great if he could prove himself amongst the Autobots and put Raf on his chest on top of his spark housing allowing him to bathe in the warmth and comfort being sent over the mystery bond.

Miko and Jack were still sat watching intently although Jack felt as though he was going to fall asleep any second.

Arcee saw Jack drooping where he was sat and lifted him to rest next to her as she turned on her side so she was facing him where he could still feel the warmth of her spark.

Both boys were still watching but were close to falling asleep as Miko looked like she was absolutely shattered where she was still sat.

Arcee moved her back so she was next to Jack and she was so tired she didn't even realise but she still tried to watch the film.

About half way through the film the sparkmates looked down and smiled at the sight yet they were also shocked at how some of the smallest things could stay the same.

Just like the time when they were sleeping a week after their birth. Raf was snuggled up next to Starscream, Jack was snuggled up next to Arcee and Miko was sprawled out in the middle of the berth taking up more room than she needed.

Arcee pulled out the cover and pulled it over all five of them.

Starscream then leaned over and kissed her.

"We almost have them back" he whispered.


	8. Chapter 8

**Skystorm, Bluewing and Northstar were all giggling as they climbed over their new piece of apparatus also known as their Sire. Arcee watched from where she was preparing the sparklings' bath with a laugh. Skystorm was sat on top of his father's head clapping his little servos, Bluewing was hanging off one of the adult seekers wings while squealing excitedly and Northstar was hanging off of the other wing also squealing and giggling.**

**"Starscream, they're gonna end up thinking that they're the bosses in this house!" She teased while crossing her arms.**

**"Oh hardly" he playfully scoffed. The adult seeker laid back on the floor resulting in the two seekerlets hanging off of his wings to lie on his wings instead and then Skystorm somehow came plummeting into his face causing him to groan in pain. He plucked his son off of his face and sat back up looking at Arcee and their offspring as they laughed at him.**

**"And you say that you have control" she shook her head as she picked up Bluewing who had lost interest and was preparing to crawl off of the surface.**

**"Blue, what have I told you about crawling off of big things?" She cooed as she brought her daughter up in front of her who squealed her answer.**

**Starscream smiled as he picked up his boys and held them to his chest. Arcee glanced at him as Bluewing, Northstar and Skystorm chirped and made noises at each other.**

**The parents then lowered their squealing off spring into the warm oil. Of course this was when the seekerlings decided they didn't want to play and decided to put up a fight by wriggling and crying. Starscream and Arcee sighed, keeping a good hold on the young seekers as they began cleaning them.**

It was the next day and as always Starscream woke before his mate. The seeker stared at Arcee's beautiful faceplates that were currently relaxed showing that she was recharging peacefully. He then glanced down and watched as his three sparklings slumbered peacefully like their mother, he resisted the urge to gather them together and keep them confined in between the space that his and his sparkmate's sparks would provide as a safe haven. One thing was for sure, the seeker wouldn't be letting them out of his sight anytime soon.

Soon enough the one that had been snuggled up against him all night, Raf, began to wriggle slightly and stretch as he began to wake. Starscream had to stop himself from beginning his old morning ritual when he and Arcee had lived happily on Cybertron with them. He was pretty sure all three humans would be freaked out if they found themselves being cradled against the seeker's chest and having their backs stroked.

Raf woke up with a yawn and stretched his arms out until he heard them pop. He sat up and the first thing the seeker noticed is that the boy hadn't even noticed him, was patting his little hands around all over him and was looked like he was squinting.

Before Starscream could even think about stopping him, the young boy had already begun crawling around and had started batting his siblings in the face

"Raf..? Dude... Not cool" Miko yawned and then opened her eyes to look at him.

"Ahh, Raf, wut are ya doinn?" Jack slurred.

Starscream couldn't help but allow his massive grin to spread across his face. He remembered when they woke up and were full of energy, but now it seems they were too tired to do anything right. His grin quickly faded and he felt his spark pound with worry when he heard the two older children gasp at their younger friend.

"Okay, Raf, your glasses may have been squashed by Starscream. By the way, morning Starscream" Jack not tried to smile as he saw his friend struggle.

"Good morning, Jack" he smiled down uncharacteristically at the boy and his other two children.

"Guys, I can't see at all!" Raf began panicking.

Unfortunately for Arcee, Raf had been a little too loud when he said that and had woken her up.

"Hmmm what happened?" She shot up and turned the kids around in her hands checking for injuries.

"Arcee we're fine but I'm not sure if Raf will be" Miko said as she pointed to his face.

"Raf, don't you usually have those things for your eyes?" The two wheeler asked him.

"Yeah but they must have slipped off of me while I was sleeping and gotten crushed" Raf sighed, "I can't see anything, it's just blurry"

"Don't you have a spare pair anywhere?" Jack chipped into the questioning.

"Well, yeah. I have multiple pairs but they're at home and you know what everyone has told our parents"

Starscream and Arcee mentally growled at that. They literally didn't care about their thoughts now, they had been away from their sparklings for too long and it pained them to hear their sparklings call other people their creators.

"Maybe Fowler could pull some strings"

"I doubt that, Miko. Your... Families think that you are still being searched for" Arcee interjected.

"Yes, I believe they cannot know until you are safely away from those wretched hands of Megatron" Starscream growled out which made the children smile slightly.

"Well, what happens to Raf?" Jack continued on with the conversation.

"Maybe Bumblebee will keep an eye on him" Miko chipped in.

"Of course he will! But he has his duties too" Raf sighed.

"Well, I suppose I could watch over you, little one" Starscream offered secretly hoping that he would agree.

Jack, Miko and Raf were very shocked by this.

"Seriously?" Miko asked not believing what she'd just heard.

"Yes" Starscream rolled his optics.

"Are you sure? You don't have to, really" Raf practically squeaked.

"I'm pretty sure Starscream is fine with it" Arcce smiled.

"That's settled then" Jack added.

…..

After breakfast Jack and Miko had started on the learning packs that Agent Fowler had obtained for them through the government. Even though Miko had argued against Agent Fowler and Optimus they had finally gotten her to do the work. However, because Raf was unable to see clearly he was being directed by Bumblebee to be able to lay his favourite racing video game. Starscream had suddenly had to go somewhere so he had left the young boy with his guardian. Starscream actually hadn't been that bad. He just asked questions about his life and even told Raf some of his own past on Cybertron.

::Left, left! Right, left, left, right, right!::

Raf sighed as he heard the sound of his car crashing in the game.

"Awh 'Bee there's no point. I can't do anything without my glasses" he put his face in his hands.

Bumblebee felt sorry for his friend and scooped him up into his hands.

::Don't say that Raf, you're amazing with or without your glasses::

"Thanks 'Bee" Raf smiled "it means a lot to me"

::Hey, technically you can still hear stuff!::

"And?"

Italics:: why don't we go outside and listen to the different sounds? We could turn the sounds into a story!::

"Great idea 'Bee! Let's go!" Raf smiled happily "see you in a bit guys!"

"Have fun!" Jack and Miko smiled at their younger friend glad that he was beginning to feel happier.

Bumblebee was in his vehicle mode as Raf rested on his hood and they began telling stories together using only the sounds they could hear.

Both of them were laughing and have a great time together.

…..

"If I could do anything that would change what I did then I would. I promise I will never leave her like I did again, I will never stop caring for her. And... I'm sorry for that time, Cliffjumper. I know you made her happy and I was a jealous, fool for murdering you"

Starscream had been sat out on the rooftop by himself. Cliffjumper had been playing on his mind as he realised that what he had done would forever make Arcee an incomplete puzzle. He had been a vital part of what his sparkmate had left of life and he had been such a piece of scrap for taking it from her. The seeker new that she would never forgive him for it and he didn't blame her... Not one bit. Even though the mech ceased to live, Starscream sensed that Primus would pass on his message to Cliffjumper's spirit in the well.

The seeker pulled his glance away from the claws that he'd killed Cliffjumper with and turned to look out at the beautiful landscape that bathed in the light of the sun. His mind rested in a different universe as he took in the magnificent build of the cliffs, the clouds that looked like puffs and swirls in the blue sky and the visible heat on the distance.

He was so hypnotised by the scene that he didn't notice light footsteps approaching from behind.

The seeker's wings flicked in surprise when Arcee placed her hands on them and gently began rubbing them.

"Arcee..." He moaned as she massaged his wings. Everyone knows a seeker' swings are incredibly sensitive so Starscream practically melted into her delicate touch.

Arcee hadn't said anything but she chuckled softly when Starscream moaned this time in disappointment as she stopped rubbing his wings and scooted around to sit herself in his lap.

The red and silver mech wrapped his arms around her and kissed the back of her neck cables.

"Relaxing isn't it?" She asked him.

"Very. It gives me time to clear my processor of thoughts un befitting of a good spark-mate" he smirked "and father"

"I'm sure they weren't that bad" she teased as she kissed his cheek. Primus, she had forgotten how much she and Starscream had loved each other before. But it felt good to love someone like this again.

"Actually... It was about Cliffju-"

Starscream was interrupted by the deafening sound of a jet. Or jets?

Starscream and Arcee paused their conversation and looked up into the sky to view the jets coming into view.

Two of them.

Cybertronian.

Starscream could see one now, a seeker. A blue seeker.

That's when the other jet came into view that Starscream went ballistic and ran back into the base with Arcee in his arms, bridal style.

He began screaming at everyone in base to get ready when he noticed that Bumblebee and Raf were nowhere to be seen. Panic gripped his spark as he realised the danger his youngest sparkling could be in.

"Where is the scout and the human?!" He demanded.

"They went outside to play a game" Miko said calmly.

"What is it you are panicked about, Starscream?" The Prime asked.

"Megatron and Dreadwing are here!" He screamed at them.

Optimus' optics widened at the information and he began preparing to transform and head to battle.

"Oh Primus! We have to get them in!" Arcee joined her sparkmate in panicking.

"All of you wait!" Ratchet stopped them from leaving "we cannot let them secure the location of our base so I'm going to ground bridge you outside" the medic informed them as he prepared the bridge.

"Starscream, remain in the base" Optimus ordered.

"Forgive me, Optimus, but I will not stay behind" the seeker declared.

"And what do you plan on doing?" Ratchet scoffed as the ground bridge opened and the boys began piling through.

"I am planning on helping my team save those children" the seeker growled at the medic.

All the bots had gone through the bridge and were most likely trying to get Raf away from battle.

While Starscream and Ratchet argued they didn't realise that the open bridge had allowed Jack and Miko access when they saw that their younger friend had not yet come through the bridge to safety.

"C'mon, Jack. We have to go help him" Miko whispered.

"Miko, it's dangerous" Jack whispered back half wanting to go.

"And imagine the amount of trouble Raf could be in if we don't go help him" The girl pointed out.

The older boy nodded and they both made a move to the ground bridge. They easily slipped through Ratchet and Starscream's legs and ran through the ground bridge determined to help their friend.

"What have you got to offer?! You killed your own sparkmate's best friend!"

"How dare you?! I understand I was wrong but you have no right to bring that up!" Starscream shouted back in Ratchet's face.

"Why did you return to her knowing you had ruined everything for her?!" Ratchet shouted, demanding answers.

Starscream sighed and looked at the floor with a defeated look.

"Because I care about them" he said quietly as he turned his head to where Jack and Miko should have been. He instantly began looking around for them when he saw that they were no longer there. When he couldn't see them he felt panic rising in his spark as he felt through his bond that they were not close.

"Ratchet, I am going through that bridge. The children have gone!"

"Of course they have" the medic muttered, he then looked up at Starscream "Go"

Starscream didn't give himself time to replay and ran through the ground bridge intent on getting his children and his sparkmate out safely.

He swore he felt his spark freeze with pure cold dread as his optics were met with the sight of Megatron holding Jack, Miko and Rafael in one hand.

"How ironic that we find ourselves in this situation again" Megatron smirked "but this time you have my ex second in command"

"Megatron, they have done nothing. If you want anything then take me and do as you want" Starscream stepped forward.

This caused the Decepticon leader to laugh out loud.

"My, my, haven't you changed Starscream" the leader continued laughing but this time with hints of darkness, he then turned to all of the Autobots "I intend on taking these children back to my ship and should any of you try to stop me I will drop them. One by one"

The Autobots including Starscream watched the silver tyrant as he threw one last grin at them before flying away with Dreadwing and the three children.

…..

The Nemesis

…..

The children could nothing as they were placed into a container. Megatron put them in surprisingly gently even though he had just expressed how infuriated he was with them for leaving with Starscream.

The container looked very strange though. It was controlled by the computer and resembled an x-ray. It had multiple lenses on the inside and when Knock Out pressed a button three lasers came down an separated the three children in the container. Different lenses moved around and adjusted as they focused on the children.

"Knock Out, scan them for any Cybertronian signatures" Megatron ordered secretly relieved that he was finally able to carry out his order.

"Yes, my liege" the crimson medic obeyed his leader and pushed a few buttons.

"You can't do this to us!" Miko shouted at the two mechs.

"I believe I can, young girl" Megatron smirked down at her although he felt a bit guilty when he saw the looks of sadness and frustration on their faces.

"Please! Let us out!" Jack slammed his fists against the container.

The oldest human boy ceased his actions when all three of them were suddenly swallowed by a green light, followed by an orange, followed by a red.

"What's happening?" Raf questioned clearly shaking.

Knock Out pressed two more buttons and the machine began running smoothly bringing up mid-decoded Cybertronian scripts. Both mechs in the room were focused on the screens when they heard the machine start beeping, whirling and smoking.

"Is this part of the scan?"

"Well, uh, no my liege" the medic said with a frown.

"Well then stop it! Stop it now!" Megatron shouted starting to become very worried.

The medic began pressing all the things he could think of that would halt the machines actions but non seemed to be working.

"Lord Megatron, I can't stop it!"

The ex gladiator growled before he commed Soundwave.

::Soundwave, switch your sensors to the medical bay mainframe and override the functioning systems::

Not long after, the machine started dimming as Soundwave had managed to shut off the main computer which had been serving as the controls.

Both Megatron and Knockout ran to the machine and opened it up.

Megatron reached in to grab the human children but could only stare at the sight in front of him.

…..

Autobot Base

…..

After Arcee had completely obliterated most things in the training room she had returned to her room. She waited for Starscream to get back from his little "excursion" and when he did they both sat on the berth holding each other.

Arcee had been crying but only snivelled now as she was hugged close by Starscream. Starscream had also been crying but he had not yet halted like Arcee, tears still dripped down his face. Watching their precious young ones go again had been too painful, having to send them away the first time was horrid enough but then watching them as they were helplessly kidnapped was worse.

"We will get them back. You got them back before, I'm pretty sure as a team we could get them back" she tried reassuring him with a sweet kiss.

He sighed as he felt his mate wrap her arms around him in a warm embrace and he gladly returned it.

It took him a while to figure out his to reply.

"It's my fault..."

"No it's not. What would make you think that?"

"I should've been watching them instead of arguing with your medic" he kept his focus on the floor, "I practically let them walk through the ground bridge"

"Starscream," she pulled his face around so that his gaze met hers "those are some pretty adventurous children. Surely you should know that?" She smiled trying to lift her sparkmate's spirits.

"They were naughty little things" he began smiling back.

"And we'll get them back, Star. We'll get them back from something that wasn't anyone's fault."

However, no matter what his beloved sparkmate said he would always believe that he had let them down yet again.

No matter what happened, he would kill Megatron.


End file.
